{"id":1796,"date":"2017-03-22T01:11:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T05:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jazzinthegardens.com\/?p=1796"},"modified":"2017-03-24T01:13:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T05:13:44","slug":"common-gives-miami-props-we-want-to-tell-another-story-about-black-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/2017\/common-gives-miami-props-we-want-to-tell-another-story-about-black-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Common gives Miami props: \u201cWe want to tell another story about Black America.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jazz in the Gardens\u2019 Sunday line up heaped praise on Miami for being an incubator for creative talent. Before performing his eponymous \u201cBlack America Again,\u201d Chicago rapper Common saluted the Miami team behind the Oscar-winning film \u201cMoonlight<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou gotta give it up to the creators that come out of the 305,\u201d the 45-year-old rapper said. \u201cIt just goes to show that given the opportunity there\u2019s no telling what you can create. They want to tell stories of us out there wilin\u2019, but we want to tell another story about Black America.\u201d ‘<\/p>\n

Now in its 12th year, the festival organizers also made certain to celebrate \u201cMoonlight\u2019s\u201d\u00a0upset win by giving the keys to the City of Miami Gardens to the young stars of the film, Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner, the Norland Middle Schoolers who played Chiron and Kevin. Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert III presented them and\u00a0their acting teacher Tanisha Cidel<\/a>, with the honors. \u201cThese are the type of educators we need to invest in. These are the type of talents we need to invest in,\u201d declared Mayor Gilbert.\u00a0Also highlighted for achievement\u00a0during the festival: the football team from Miami Carol City Senior High School. The Chiefs won the Class 6A State Championship back in December and came to the stage to be applauded by Mayor Gilbert and host Ricky Smiley.<\/p>\n

The young stars of \u201cMoonlight,\u201d Jaden Piner, left, and Alex Hibbert, talk to reporters after receiving the key to the City of Miami Gardens.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Along with the celebration of local talent, audiences enjoyed an evening of music from Smokie Norful, Esperanza Spalding, The Roots, Andra Day, Common and LL Cool J.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to dig into the crates!,\u201d cried LL Cool J, jumping off his set with \u201cMama Said Knock You Out\u201d and a bass-heavy \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d that made eardrums tickle.<\/p>\n

The rapper also presented\u00a0Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, the\u00a0unarmed Miami Gardens teen who was shot and killed five years ago. She took\u00a0the stage to talk about her book, \u201cRest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jazz in the Gardens\u2019 Sunday line up heaped praise on Miami for being an incubator for creative talent. Before performing his eponymous \u201cBlack America Again,\u201d Chicago rapper Common saluted the Miami team behind the Oscar-winning film \u201cMoonlight.\u201d \u201cYou gotta give it up to the creators…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzinthegardens.com\/firstact\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}