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The musical Lonesome Blues pays tribute to one of Deep Ellum’s most famous and influential songsters, Blind Lemon Jefferson. Produced by Documentary Arts in association with Central Track Productions, the show opens Sunday, February 25, and continues with weekend matinees through Sunday, April 7, at Club Dada in Deep Ellum (2720 Elm St., Dallas). Written by author/filmmaker Alan Govenar and acclaimed actor/director Akin Babatundé.

Down in Dallas Town is a startling film about the shifting terrain of public memory sixty years after the murder of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the assassination on issues in today’s world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K-2. The film is now available to stream on Amazon.

On view at the African American Museum of Dallas are two exhibitions organized by Documentary Arts: Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw, featuring the photographs of Alan Govenar and curated by Phillip Collins, and Central Track: Crossroads of Deep Ellum, curated by Alan Govenar and Phillip Collins.

The Deep Ellum Community Center is now open at 2528 Elm Street, Suite A, including three new exhibitions created in collaboration with Documentary Arts: When You Go Down in Deep Ellum, Unlikely Blues, and Invisible Deep Ellum.

Truth in Photography, a new website produced by Documentary Arts, recently launched its Summer 2023 edition. The site asks the question, “Where does the truth lie in a photograph?”

Texas African American Photography Archive

The 60,000 images in the Texas African American Photography (TAAP) Archive, founded by Alan Govenar and Kaleta Doolin in 1995, focus on the growth and development of vernacular and community photography among African Americans in Texas.

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