Local movers, shakers, singers and dancers had their chance to chew the ears of a national arts commission on Friday.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is on a mission from Congress to figure out how to incorporate arts and humanities into everything from government to education to the private sector.
Miami-Dade College was the 4th stop on a nation-wide series of panels. And an array of South Floridian cultural leaders gave testimony.
Singer Gloria Estefan told the group about a "Literature of the Holocaust" course she took at the University of Miami, taught by an Auschwitz survivor. Estefan said she left class crying every day. And credits that class with the reason she became a community activist.
“We've organized marches here when the Damas de Blanca in Cuba were being beaten, and whenever I've had to speak up, where I've had to write a letter to the editor,” said Estefan. “This course was instrumental in helping me see the importance of being a part of what's going on."
The panel will compile this kind of testimony into a report and make recommendations about how the humanities can be incorporated into society.
Two more humanities panels are scheduled for North Carolina and New York.