Valada Parker Flewellyn
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, "For thValada Parker Flewellyn
Author, Poet, Storyteller, Exhibit Curator

Author/Storyteller
Her books include: “Poetically, Just Us” (c.1990),  “Yours Truly” 1994, “Jack & Jill of America into the New Millennium” (c.2000),“African Americans of Sanford”  an Arcadia Publication. (c.2010) . Her most recent publication is"For the Children: The History of Jack and Jill of America Incorporated" (c.2018), the history of the oldest African American family organization.  

Valada has been a presenter at several Walt Disney World venues:  The Disney Market Place, The Grand Floridian, and Epcot.  Her children’s book, “The Mosquito” was first introduced in a one women show at the Disney Institute, 1997.

For many years Valada has supported the Zora Neale Hurston festival as a performer, as the  Zora Special Places tour guide and as a volunteer.   She played the role of “Juel” in the festival’s first production of Zora’s play, “From Sun to Sun”  presented at the Annie Russell Theatre, on the campus of Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. Due to the racial prejudice of the time, 1930s,  Zora Hurston and her troupe were not allowed to perform on the theatre stage, but was relegated to the school's  cafeteria. 

Documentaries include :  Goldsboro: An American Story, 2006 and Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown the first African American Naval Fighter Pilot, 2011.   We Are Still Here, 2016.  

 IF  Only You Knew: Icabod Flewellen: Father of the African 
American Museum.
  
Premiered at the Washington Shores Prebyterian Church, September 22, 2019 and Presented at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Conference in Charlston, South Carolina. October 2-6, 2019.
.
Exhibit Curator:

“Enter Colored Hats: Poetry & Presence”Seminole County Museum, Sanford Florida

“Enter Colored Hats” University of Central Florida Library, Sanford Museum.

“A Pilot Lights the Way: A tribute to Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown & Blacks in Aviation”  opened at the Univ. of Central Florida Library and traveled to the following venues:

                                     Oakmonte Village, Lake Mary, Fl

                                     Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), Melbourne, Fl,

                                     The Warbird Adventures Museum, Kissimmee, Fl

                                     Orlando Sanford International Airport, Sanford, Fl
                                        (Items from exhibit is currently on display)

                                    The African American Military Museum, Hattiesburg, Ms

                                    The National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, Fl  
                                      (2011 as a part of the U.S. Navy's 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation Celebration)
                                                 
                                      The Sanford Museum, Sanford, Fl


"PRAISE, REACH & TEACH: The Legacy of Joseph N. & Wealthy Crooms," founders of Crooms Academy, the first Negro High School  in Sanford, Florida.     Sanford Museum, Sanford, Florida (2015)

"He Shook Hands With MLK",  Seminole County Museum

"Celebrating the Purdy's" , Oakmonte Village, Lake Mary, FL

 "The National Black Golf Hall of Fame: Celebrating Golf's Black History" June 2014 St. Augustine, Florida
     *Note: Valada Flewellyn  is the Historian & Archivist for the National Black Golf Hall of Fame"

"Dr. Myron Moorehead: A Man, A Moment, A Movement"  University of Central Florida Library, (February 2017)


Professional  and Social Justice memberships include:
                         

                                   The Association for the Study of African American Life & History
                                      Central Florida Dorothy Turner Johnson Branch

                                    The Association of  Black Women Historians

                                    The Association of African American Museums

                                    
                                    Sanford Historical Society 
  
                                   The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
                       
                                   The Society of  Florida Archives 

                                    Bridging the Color Divide
       
                                    Truth and Justice 2.0,  (An affiliate of the Equal Justice Initiative)

                                    The Charles Wright Museum

                 


Valada has penned commemorative poems for:

Meharry Medical College, 125th Anniversary
Seminole County's 65th Anniversary
Jack & Jill of America, Incorporated, 60th Anniversary
Liberty Bank, New Orleans, 25th Anniversary
News Orleans, Zulu King & Queen of Mardi Gras, 1999
Lucille O'Neale's graduation, Bethune Cookman College
Miss America, Erika Dunlap's Coronation Celebration
Dedication at Bethune Cookman College
Closing of Naval Base Hospital in Orlando
Trayvon Martin
Orange County Equal Justice Iniative Lynching, Soil Collection 
Congresswomen Corrine Brown (Coretta Scott King Memorial)
and a host of friends and relatives.
 


Valada was appointed to the Sanford Historical Advisory Board by the Sanford City Council, she is former president of The Sanford Historical Society and on the board of the Crealde School of Art and the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, Winter Park, Florida.

She served on the Advisory Board of Creative Sanford Incorporated producers of the folk play, Celery Soup's, “Touch & Go”.  Valada was an actor in the Inaugural production.  The story of  Valada's first childhood  experience with race was among   the central themes in the play written by Jules Courier. 

Valada is Historian for the Central Florida Dorothy Turner Johnson Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. 

Valada is Poet Laureate of Jack & Jill of America, Incorporated and co-author of the organization's 2nd history book , and author of the most recent  history  book , "For the Children..." (c2018). 

Valada is an Honorary Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. (Orlando, 2002)

Valada and her husband Thomas are active  members of  Washington Shores Presbyterian Church, Pastor Erika Rembrandt Smith.   She  enjoys music, art, history and tennis.

 


 

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