‘Conservation Conversations’ kick off in August

By Becky Mayad

The African American Museum, Dallas, will present Sepia Magazine: Turning the Pages, a lively conversation featuring author and literary advocate Emma Rodgers and award-winning North Texas journalist Bob Ray Sanders, on Saturday, Aug. 1, from 1:30–3 p.m. Marking the launch of a new Conservation Conversations series, the event is free and open to the public but registration is required.

Presented in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition People Who Make the World Go ’Round: The Legacy of Sepia Magazine, the program will explore the stories, photographs and cultural influence of the groundbreaking Fort Worth-based magazine, which documented African American life, achievement, culture and social change from 1947–1983.

Rodgers, co-founder of Dallas’ celebrated Black Images Book Bazaar, and Sanders, whose distinguished career spans newspapers, television and radio, will reflect on Sepia’s enduring legacy and its place in North Texas and American journalism. Former WRR-FM General Manager Greg Davis will serve as moderator.

The museum is home to the Sepia Photographic Archive, a collection of more than 20,000 images acquired in 1991 and now part of its permanent collection.

Closing Aug. 11, People Who Make the World Go ’Round: The Legacy of Sepia Magazine exhibition spotlights some of the 20th century’s most influential Black icons – from Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles to Maya Angelou, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.

Published for nearly four decades, Sepia magazine served as a powerful voice in Black journalism, chronicling political change, cultural innovation and everyday life in African American communities nationwide. During its peak, Sepia emerged as a national competitor to Ebony and Jet magazines, distinguished by its Southern perspective and editorial voice rooted in the American South.

Organized thematically, the exhibition explores portraiture, fashion, global politics and the many individuals who helped shape American culture and society. Other powerful highlights include images of Richard Pryor, Louis Armstrong at the State Fair of Texas, Michael Jackson, Berry Gordon, Malcolm X and Fidel Castro, Sidney Poitier, Gordon Parks, Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, and Roberta Flack with John Lennon, Yoko Ono and David Bowie.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. The African American Museum is located at 3536 Grand Ave. in Fair Park. For more information, visit aamdallas.org.