MIAMI — South Florida community leader and artist Dinizulu Gene Tinnie will assume the position of Honorary Africana Research Fellow at Florida International University in Spring 2008 during which he will continue to work on his independent research on the Middle Passage (Atlantic “slave trade”).
This ambitious project, with noted Delaware historic preservationist Harmon R. Carey, is a full-scale Slave Ship Replica, based on surviving original design plans, which will serve as an International Traveling Museum, Educational Resource Center and Ancestral Memorial Shrine.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Akin Ogundiran, Director of African-New World Studies program at FIU, describes Mr. Tinnie “as a committed foot soldier for the appreciation of African and African-American history, arts, and culture.
Dinizulu Gene Tinnie
Dinizulu brings a wealth of eclectic knowledge as an artist, researcher, preservationist, and community leader into our program. Our students have a lot to learn from his multiple talents and rich experience. We expect his residency to energize our interests in historical memory, preservation, visual arts, and community stewardship. His appointment will also strengthen our relationship with different sectors of the community.”
Mr. Tinnie is currently assisting the program develop its Africana Visual Arts curriculum. In Fall 2007, he taught the first course in Africana Arts ever offered at FIU – “Introduction to Africana Arts.”
Dinizulu is a New York-born, Miami-based visual artist, writer, educator, community activist and independent researcher who also has a formal background in foreign languages, literature and linguistics and an active interest in community uplift through historic preservation, cultural arts and improved wellness and health care. He is the founder and coordinator of Kuumba Artists Collective of South Florida.
As an artist, Mr. Tinnie’s original paintings, sculptures, drawings, and graphic designs have been widely exhibited and collected. His works, with his signature style of geometric, figurative, and multidimensional elements can be seen around the Miami area as part of the art-in-public places program. He is also a writer and an avid social commentator. His writings include numerous articles in The Miami Times weekly, as well as in The Miami Herald, FlaVour magazine, South Florida History magazine, and, most recently, the bilingual Afro-Cuban publication Islas, in addition to a number of research papers presented at academic conferences.
A widely respected community leader, Mr. Tinnie is one of the primary organizers of the Annual Sunrise Ancestral Remembrance Ceremony held every June at Historic Virginia Key Beach. He is the Chairperson of the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, which is charged by the City of Miami with the restoration and management of Miami-Dade County’s onetime only “Colored Beach,” as a recreational, historic and environmental landmark and museum. He is also the Board Chair of the Helen Bentley Family Health Center in Coconut Grove, and he serves on the board of several other institutions in South Florida.
Mr. Tinnie will be based on FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus but will be available for classroom visit and meeting with students on both the University Park and Biscayne Bay Campuses throughout the Spring semester.
