When Neil Hall perused the exhibits during Art Basel on Miami Beach back in 2008, he noticed a lack of Black art galleries and artists being featured.
“It astounded me because the diaspora has so much creativity all over the world, and I didn’t see it,” he said. “I decided that it was not acceptable.”
A few years later, Hall, a Miami-based architect and founder of gallery Art Africa, along with a few friends, hosted a Black-centered event in Overtown, Miami’s historically Black neighborhood known as the Harlem of the South. The group set up in an empty parking lot near where the restaurant Red Rooster currently sits and held their own art fair, which would be known as Art Africa Miami…