Their stories are illustrated with the new photo exhibit that is hanging in the Spady Museum now until the end of March.

While the crowd was engaged and asking questions of the Spears, attending a lecture and exhibit is only but one way to celebrate Black History Month. In fact, you can celebrate Black History in ways that may surprise you.

For instance, in 2010, I was charged with writing a magazine series about local organizations and attractions that were celebrating milestone anniversaries. Standing in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, I receive an impromptu black history lesson. As CEO Bruce Wigo gave me a tour of the galleries, I learned about an enduring myth that he wanted to dispel – that black people can’t swim.

“Until the Civil War, African-Americans and Native Americans were the world’s great swimmers. In fact, some were brought over to the Americas to be swim instructors to white people. But during segregation, they lost access to the beaches, and so generations lost their ability to swim,” he told me.

The Hall has two exhibit areas, one dedicated to the competition of the sport and the other dedicated to the history. Of the two, Bruce enjoyed the history more.

“Above our gift shop is the space that acts as a gallery to the cultural, artistic and historic depictions of swimming from the Roman era and imagery of Japanese, African, Hawaiian and Native American swimmers to contemporary Olympic games and babies in pools. That is my favorite space,” he said.

Paintings and depictions of people of color swimming, diving and fishing dominate the walls. Maybe if we knew we were among the world’s greatest swimmers at one time, today’s Olympians of the water would be a bit more diversified. One can only wonder…

Enjoy Black History Month in new and different ways this year. Look for African culture in every venue. Make it a game. Consider it a challenge. You might be amazed at what you find. I was.

International Swimming Hall of Fame: One Hall of Fame Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316; 954-462-6536; http://www.ishof.org

Africans were gifted swimmers, as displayed in exhibits at the International Swimming Hall of Fame

On the walls behind the statute are engraved some of the more famous quotes from the civil rights leader at different points in his growth and understanding. His philosophy expands beyond the plight of the African-American man and woman in the United States to the ascension of human rights throughout the world.  The quotes are carved on granite walls that run the length of the monument.

Open air and overlooking the water, it invites a slow stroll, where you read and think, read and think.

Then you take in him, this massive figure that emerges, hewn from the stone wall from behind. Dr. King seems to move forward, extending from the hold of stagnant ideas, walking toward freedom. The likeness is striking. As you stare up at him, he stares out, a visionary, even in memory…

As January 16 approaches, it’s time for the nation to stop and remember the man, the dream and the legacy, but January is also a time for resolutions. In his memory, we invite  you to add three resolutions to your 2012 list:

1)      Join your community for the celebration. Have breakfast with our Spady Museum and Old School Square family on Monday at 8 a.m. at the Delray Beach Golf Club. Begin your day with a filling meal, song, poetry and fellowship.

2)      Live his legacy. Read a book to a child, volunteer or continue to volunteer, recognize the beauty of living in a country where you can speak your mind and share your gifts with others.

3)      Visit the monument. Too often, we wait for the perfect time to take a trip or visiting our nation’s Capitol seems passé. But walking the Mall and taking in the monuments dedicated to our country’s history is awesome. Dr. King is the newest addition, inspiring awe, and rightly so.

The Spady Museum is welcoming the community to join it, as it partners with Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s Delray Beach chapter, to celebrate Kwanzaa 2012 at an event from 7-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30 at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church Parrish Hall, 404 SW Third Avenue in Delray Beach. Admission is fresh fruit to share or canned goods. For more information, call Charlene Jones at 561-279-8883.

If you’ve never been to a Kwanzaa event, it is not a Black Christmas or African holiday. Instead, it’s a community gathering, where people of all faiths recommit themselves to helping each other and themselves, by recognizing the value of hard work, focus and a promise to being better citizens, family members and individuals.

It’s more like a resolution party.

My family and I have recognized Kwanzaa at programs from Riviera Beach to Ft. Lauderdale. Our boys were little and patiently sat through adults talking, children singing and poems being read at evening events. We also celebrated as a family, decorating the dining room with our harvest, candles and libation cup. We have good memories of Kwanzaa, the seven days of reflection and promise, following a Christmas day of exchanging gifts, enjoying family and giving thanks.

A nice balance – try it, if you’re able.

During our birthday year, one of the biggest pieces of news was that our fabulous museum curator and educator Brandy Brownlee-Shaw was expecting her first child. Her baby, Xavier Shaw, was born Dec. 17, and we wish Brandy and her newly expanding family all the best.

On an event note, the museum enjoyed a wonderful Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, welcomed a record crowd to its second Juneteenth celebration at Crane’s BeachHouse & Tiki Bar and served up soulful goodness with South African wines at its first “Soulful Tastings” at Patio Delray.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at these events and at our revamped and redesigned Heritage Day Festival.

We made new partners, retained key relationships and emerged sleeker and more focused in 2011. Our members renewed with enthusiasm, and our donors and supporters gave us great feedback and valued financial contributions.

Looking forward, we hope to see you at our new exhibits, beginning in January 2012 with ” Scenes from Africa: Photographs by Samuel Spear, Jr.,” and our regular events.

We appreciate all of your patronage, ideas and well wishes. The Spady Museum is ready for the next. Happy Holidays and Happy 2012!

OK, what would you do? We were meeting at Patio Delray to discuss the planning for the upcoming “Soulful Tastings: An Evening of Southern Foods and South African Wines.” (If you haven’t yet, click on the title and learn about this great event.  You can buy your advance, discounted tickets at www.spadymuseum.org.)

Anyway, by “we” I mean me, the Spady ladies — Brandy Brownlee and Charlene Jones, Mrs. Vera Farrington — museum founder, and volunteer divas extraordinaire, Margie Walden and Joycelyn Patrick. We were joined by Patio Delray owner Lillie Buccheit, as Chef Scott Thomas let us sample his creations for the evening. Salt and pepper fried fish nuggets on skewers and barbecue beef piled on hushpuppy circles were tested out, as was the Late Harvest wine (a lovely, Reisling-like white)  from the Nederburg winery.

It was a good meeting! Except for that last bite, just sitting there, all sad and alone. As we chatted about the food, the raffle items (bottles of wine) and the hoped-for guest count, I kept eyeing that last bite, until someone made the suggestion, “someone needs to eat it, so we can clean up.”

Sigh. Well, OK, if I have to. I mean eating and sipping at the restaurant, instead of meeting at the museum, WAS my idea. One quick move, and it was gone.

On Oct. 21, guests can sample the fried fish, BBQ beef, baked and fried macaroni and cheese, chicken and biscuits and sweet potato donut holes, along with three Nederburg whites and three reds. I’m thinking the last bites won’t last that long, so get there at 6:30 p.m., alright?

See you at Patio Delray!

On Oct. 21, come eat and drink on this beautiful Patio in Delray -- Patio Delray, get it?

I recently learned that black winemakers are a rarity in South Africa. So rare, that one of the few has his own blog, sharing his unique experience of having a career in wines in a region where the population is predominantly black, but wineries are still very segregated.

I learned this because The Spady Museum is holding its new “Soulful Tastings: An Evening of Southern Foods and South African Wines” on Oct. 21 at Patio Delray, and one of our potential guests wanted to know if the wines being featured were not tainted by apartheid practices.  Smart question.

A few hours later, I discovered that our featured wines from the Nederburg winery, employed Tariro Masayiti, who blogs on “Black White Winemaker.” He loves his job. He calls wine-making a passion. I was heartened that Nederburg had taken such a stance with Tariro and that we would be able to enjoy his passion in a few weeks.

Come sip the fruits of a region that is still transforming and support a wonderful career that hopefully will inspire others, so being a black winemaker in South Africa isn’t a rarity anymore.

Join us at "Soulful Tastings" at Patio Delray, Oct. 21 at 6:30 p.m. © artjazz / www.fotosearch.com

Or maybe they like the personalized approach that walks them through the city’s historical and cultural districts.

Or maybe it’s the opportunity to get up close and personal with venues they always pass by, but never seem to have time to explore thoroughly. Or maybe they just need another way to entertain out-of-town guests, who are ready to do something other than recline on the beach.

Who knows why the Spady Museum’s “Ride & Remember” Trolley Tour is so popular? It just is, and it’s coming back for its monthly schedule, beginning Sept. 10. (Save your spot by calling 561-279-8883; cost is $15 per person.)

Every second Saturday, visitors board the signature trolley bus for a two-hour tour that is narrated by Charlene Jones and/or Brandy Brownlee. They stop at Old School Square, a rotating historical district and end with a walk-through of the Spady Museum.  Afterwards, several riders take advantage of downtown’s many restaurants to grab lunch.

A nice way to spend the day, as evidenced by the folks who sign up every month.

Some bring friends. Others bring family. All take away memories. Check out photos from “Ride & Remember” at Danika’s “I-Love-Delray-Beach.com.” If you haven’t climbed aboard, try to join us this year.  Upcoming 2011 dates are Oct. 8, Nov. 12 and Dec. 10.

Sponsored by Florida Power & Light and The Colony Hotel, the Ride and Remember Trolley Tours begin Sept. 10 and continue every second Saturday through 2011.

“Playwrights and Play Readings” is directed by Donalda McCarthy, friend to the museum.  The group is pictured below, deep in play-reading focus.

In her own words,  Donalda describes the photo of the first meeting at the Spady a little something like this –

“The two ladies on the left are an actress and a director from Hollywood, FL. The man on the right is a vaudevillian performer from Jupiter. The lady on the right is an actress and Drama teacher from Costa Rica (well, okay, Boynton Beach.)… Smile.

Our playwright was initially perplexed/concerned to hear her African-American characters through the voices of non-Black voices. Understandably. Alas, the actors were so strong and their professional production experience was able to offer her a wealth of additional feedback and broaden her audience scheme, to boot!

Thanks everyone! See you next month for Denyce Shaw’s “Three Generation of Men.” — Donalda”

To learn more about “Playwrights and Play Readings,” visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Playreadings/

The Foundation donated 6,000 sackpacks in five colorful designs to children served by area non-profit organizations and schools. The Foundation presented the sackpacks, which contain essential school supplies, during a special “Back-to-School Celebration” at the Office Depot store located at 14539 Military Trail in Delray Beach.

Through the award-winning National Backpack Program, which is now in its 11^th year, the Office Depot Foundation help deserving children prepare for school by donating 350,000 sackpacks across the United States and internationally.  The newly designed sackpacks, which were specially created for the Foundation, reflect and respond to changes in the ways that children are taking their materials to school.

“In keeping with our mission – Listen Learn Care − we’ve created these fun and exciting sackpacks in response to what kids have told us they like,” said Foundation President Mary Wong.  “We are thrilled to donate these very cool sackpacks to more children in a single year than ever before.

Charlene Farrington, director of the Spady Museum’s youth program, will distribute the museum’s allotment of Foundation sackpacks to the many community children it serves through its programs and collaborative partnerships.

Left to right: Office Depot Foundation team member, Office Depot Foundation team member, David Fannin (O.D. Foundation Board Member), Mary Wong (O.D.Foundation President), Shanel Smith (Front), Shayna Wright (Back), Charlene Jones (Spady Museum), George Ballou, (O.D. store manager), Bill Lanning (O.D.district manager).

More than 130 people turned out to the Spady’s Juneteenth Celebration at the lovely Crane’s BeachHouse Hotel &  Tiki Bar a few weeks ago to do just that — and to raise $5,000 to help The Spady Museum do what it does so well, provide cultural and historical programs to the community.

All of us were either under, near or next to the straw Tiki Hut, which had the drinks, food and music. And no one left until the raffle of wonderful prizes got started. I won a one-night stay to the Historic Hartman House, a new bed and breakfast in Delray Beach (which I gave to my visiting sisters-in-law from New Jersey) and a pass to the Delray Beach International Tennis Tournament (which I gave to a tennis buff friend).

Special thanks must go to the donors who made the extra-great raffle possible: Sunfest; Raindancer Steakhouse; Boca Ballet Theatre; Lion Safari; Delray Beach International Tennis; Miami Dolphins, Ltd.; Mounts Botanical Garden; The Gym 111; Bluegreen Corporation; City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill; Mercedes Benz of Delray Beach; Massage Envy; Mary Coup; Palm Beach International Raceway; Ziree Thai & Sushi; Mark Williams; the Historic Hartman House; Crane’s BeachHouse & Tiki Bar; Lake Worth Golf Course; Hand’s Office & Art Supply; Prep & Sports; and Iberia Bank.

Despite the heat, which some of us weathered better than others, a great time was had by all.

Next up, the Spady Day Festival, August 20, along historic Northwest Fifth Avenue. More hot summertime fun, outside, in Delray Beach, courtesy of the Spady Museum. Keep a fan close by, ya’ll.

Jessica Hinners, Brian Hinners and Donalda McCarthy

Peter Perri and Chuck Walberg

Clayton Bell and Yvonne Odom