Othello of Overtown

Purvis Young’s life and Overtown legacy are reimagined through theater, live jazz and archival footage during a staged reading at Pérez Art Museum Miami. The PAMM performance of Othello of Overtown takes place Saturday, July 11, as part of the museum’s Family Fun Day programming. The new play uses Shakespeare’s Othello as a dramatic framework for exploring Young’s artistic vision, community ties and complicated relationship with the art world.

Set against the cultural history of Overtown, the work follows Young’s early years, his self-directed learning through local libraries and the paintings he created in response to the people, movement and struggles around him. The reading incorporates original lyrics, music and rare archival footage connected to Miami’s art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s.

The play is written by Miami-born Surinamese American playwright, director and actor Sefanja Richard Galon and directed by Carey Brianna Hart. Producer Clare Vickery, founder and director of Grace Arts Center, has been developing the project since 2020 after organizing one of Young’s major commercial exhibitions in 2007. Partners contributing to the readings include the Miami-Dade Public Library System, M Ensemble, Glickman Media, Purvis Young Day founder Terrence Cribbs-Lorrant and the Wolfson Archives.