(WSVN) - A South Florida teen is on a mission to teach history through art, and she’s doing it one neighborhood at a time. Reporter Karen Hensel has her story in today’s 7 Spotlight.
Fort Lauderdale’s Sistrunk neighborhood has a rich history.
Yana Danzig, founder, Brushstrokes for History: “This area was kind of the heart of the Black community in Fort Lauderdale for many years.”
Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Yana Danzig has spent the past several months learning all she could about the area. She became interested after volunteering in a service project to help revitalize Sistrunk.
Yana Danzig: “They were already painting colorful and beautiful designs on pieces of plywood to put up on buildings like these.”
Yana says she learned so much about the history here, she wanted to share it with others. So she decided to do it in the way she knows best: through painting.
Yana Danzig: “I just really feel motivated and driven to help communicate with people through art.”
Yana has created her own nonprofit, called Brushstrokes for History.
Yana Danzig: “It’s really about empowering community members and students to really create art that represents how they want their own stories and community to be viewed.”
During the summer, she held art classes at local community centers.
Her students created paintings of the neighborhood’s early leaders, including its namesake, Dr. James Sistrunk, Broward County’s first Black doctor.
Yana Danzig: “So this portrait is kind of an anime version of the main famous portrait of Dr. Sistrunk.”
And now, the art is finding a home. This past weekend, Yana teamed up with Bbroward College for its BC Cares service project. They gave an old vacant building a new coat of paint, and used the children’s paintings to cover up the broken windows and doors.
Yana Danzig: “The building itself has so much history.”
The paintings were installed at the former Cone Plaza on Sistrunk Boulevard. The building opened in the 1950s as a hat shop that attracted both Black and white customers.
Yana Danzig: “Here we have a painting depicting Kathleen C. Wright, who was an influential Black school board member.
Yana knows the paintings won’t last forever, so she’s creating an online gallery where the paintings, and the stories they tell, can be shared with everyone.
Yana Danzig: “It would be really cool for people who don’t necessarily walk by here every day to still be able to learn about the history and understand why this area is so important to so many people.”
Karen Hensel, 7News.
If you know of a person, place or group that you think we should highlight, email us at 7spotlight@wsvn.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Brushstrokes for History