The South Florida-based Grace Arts Center is honoring the legacy of the late Miami artist Purvis Young through an adaption of Shakespeare’s Othello. The play, entitled Othello of Overtown, uses elements of the Shakespearean classic to reflect Young’s life and struggles.
The play had two readings in July — first at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale and another at the Pérez Art Museum Miami — as it works its way up to a full production planned for 2027.
Clare Vickery, producer of Othello of Overtown and founder of the Grace Arts Center, organized and sponsored Young’s largest commercial exhibition in 2007. By 2008, Young and his works were under legal guardianship, an arrangement determined by the court system in which a representative is appointed to handle the affairs of a vulnerable adult. According to the Washington Post, one of Young’s dealers, Martin Siskind — whom Young had previously sued for financial reasons — had suggested the artist qualified for guardianship.
Clare Vickery is the producer of “Othello of Overtown” and founder of the Grace Arts Center./
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
“I literally had a front row seat to watch how that devastated him as a man, as an artist,” said Vickery. “I saw that happening between 2008 and 2010… This project has been a personal goal of mine since then.”
“As a result of [his work], I started working in the arts nonprofit world by founding the [Grace Arts Center] organization after he died,” continued Vickery. “Not directly to promote Purvis, but to promote arts and culture in a way that I thought was going to be honoring what we had started.”
Jazz artist Angel Perez plays keyboard during the reading.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
The Grace Arts Center has been operating for just over 15 years, offering free public programming. Every other year, the nonprofit performs a Shakespeare adaptation.
“[Othello] is probably one of [Shakespeare’s] best male Black protagonists,” said Vickery. “It’s also the story of a warrior who was well-renowned for his military prowess, and yet because he was excellent, he was an easy target to take down by his own colleagues. For me, Othello was a natural platform for Purvis’ struggle.”
Othello of Overtown had two readings in South Florida, one in Fort Lauderdale and the Other in Miami.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
According to Vickery, the Desdemona in the play is an anthropomorphized version of Young’s art. She is also a physical representation of the dialogue between himself and his creations.
Set against the cultural backdrop of Overtown in the second half of the 20th century, the play incorporates live jazz, original lyrics, visual arts and dance with traditional theater performance art. The project is based on archival research, community interviews and personal recollections with the aim of highlighting Young’s impact on Miami and the challenges faced by artists throughout the nation.
The production features live jazz by Donovan Perry and Claudens Louise, and stage direction by Lisa Wilson.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
Playwright Sefanja Richard Galon found throughout the process that if he leaned too heavily on the traditional characters, he lost “purpose.”
“When it came to Purvis Young’s story, rather than taking the text and [adapting] from there, I had to get a timeline of his life first — all of his inspirations and the different elements — and then link those to characters in the play,” said Galon. “So, while I have many lines pulled from Othello, it’s a little bit more abstracted rather than making a one-to-one correlation to his life.”
Sefanja Richard Galon answers questions during the Q&A portion of the reading at the PAMM.
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
Young, who created his art on found materials rather than canvases, attempted to capture the soul and struggle of Overtown — often in ways that were underappreciated during his time.
“There are lots of perspectives from archival information,” Galon said. “At the time, it seemed like a lot of the artists that were being curated and presented were people from higher academia. [Reporters and writers] had a different way of speaking about these individuals versus Purvis… They would describe him as naive. They would describe him as a tall, rugged man that doesn’t look like an artist.”
Andre Gainey plays Purvis/Othello in “Othello of Overtown.”
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
“But when you listen to and you watch the video interviews of him, he talks about his art like any artist does,” Galon continued. “He talks about his inspirations. He talks about what he’s trying to accomplish through his art. He talks about why he creates and how it’s so deeply connected to his community that he can’t help but continue to create as he continues to observe injustices in the world around him.”
Othello of Overtown is a Miami story by Miamians. Play director Carey Brianna Hart knew of Young through her mother, who grew up with him in Overtown.
“Purvis is a South Florida Institution,” said Hart. “He represents an iconic time in Miami. We have things that put Miami on the map for our uniqueness… It’s a lot of fun to create these worlds that people then come and see themselves in and identify [with] and say that they recognize themselves. But it [also] develops compassion and understanding and helps us to live in the world a little bit better.”
For Hart, the story is about artists protecting their art and their voices.
Carey Brianna Hart is the director of “Othello of Overtown.”
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)
“The story should be told of what was done to him because it’s not just his story,” said Hart. “It’s the story of so many artists. Their work is taken away from them; it’s then devaluated, and then after they’re dead, it’s worth so much more. It happens time and time again with visual artists.”
Prices for Young’s works have fluctuated over time, but in late 2023, one of his large-scale prime-period pieces sold for $437,500 at Akiba Galleries.
“Purvis was a Miami local,” said Galon. “He came from Overtown. He came from a city that was bulldozed and torn in two by I-95, and his life is a direct result of the actions of the people in power and the systems [they] have created. If we want a different tomorrow, if we want stories that are different from Purvis’, then we need to start today to create the conditions where artists and people can thrive.”
The readings in July were excerpted from three acts that tracked Young’s life through the 1980s. In 2027, the full production, which will likely be five acts, will be put on by the M Ensemble, a local Miami theater company and the oldest operating Black theater company in Florida.
“Everybody who’s encountered Purvis’ work has a very profound experience,” said Galon. “They see themselves in it. They see a vision for the future and what it could be. Bringing his story to 2026 is kind of [like] breathing more life and intrigue into the things that he’s made and why he has made them, as a cautionary tale to artists and to the public at large.”