FROM THE THRESHOLD OF INVISIBILITY

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This digital commemoration explores the social and cultural significance of Overtown, a heritage neighborhood in Miami holding a prominent place in the city's identity, as well as other sidelined communities such as the MacFarlane Historic district and the City of Opa-Locka. Overtown, once known as "Colored town" by locals, played a crucial role in shaping Miami's urban imaginary, serving as a site for intercultural congregation and cohesion. Historians such as Dr. N.B.D. Conolly describe Overtown as a place that provided an aspirational urban sense of possibility and deep-rooted community life (Connolly 2014). It was also the scene of a vibrant nightlife, giving rise to the fabled "Little Broadway," with numerous entertainment venues along NW 2nd Avenue. This area hosted some of the most iconic names of American musical culture, including Billy Holiday, Nate King Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald.

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While Miami Beach has given the city an international allure, Overtown delineates an "other" Miami or paraphrasing writer Eduardo Galeano, a city of the silenced and marginalized. Overtown has been a place of convergence in the urban imaginary still shaping Miami's fluid identity. However, it also exemplifies the spatial complexities of a racialized past that remains grievously present in a 21st century global metropolis and our country at large.

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Connolly, N. D. B. (2014). A world more concrete: Real estate and the remaking of Jim Crow South Florida. The University of Chicago Press.

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