Moneta Sleet Jr. was honored during the inaugural Through Sleet’s Eyes Festival over the weekend with several events held at the RiverPark Center. There was also a special reuniting of sorts when the subject of one of Sleet’s portraits stopped in Owensboro.
The weekend, while well-attended by community members, also had Sleet’s children Greg and Lisa Sleet, his colleague Ozier Muhammad, photo subject Thressa DeGrandchamp and several other family members of Sleet’s in attendance.
“It’s been very emotional. I shed a few tears there, not for the first time, just a few moments ago going to see his childhood home, go by my grandparents’ gravesite, go over to the park that’s named after him, meeting all the people I met and even for me long lost relatives of the Sleets that have journeyed here. It has been very uplifting and gratifying,” Greg Sleet said.
The weekend began with a play written by Jeffery Gillett for over 1,500 students as part of the Arts Teach Kids program. Students from local elementary and middle schools learned about Moneta’s story and were motivated by Gillet’s charge: ‘Greatness is in me.’
“Sometimes it’s not about the size of the place you come from, but the size of your journey and your drive, and I wanted them to walk away knowing that greatness is an each and every one of them, specifically being from here,” Gillett said.
While Gillett had an injured Achilles, he knew the message of the story surpassed his physical ability. Through a one-man show, he portrayed four characters and discussed the power of the camera lens in history and in today’s time.
Following the play, DeGrandchamp not only reunited with a portrait of her 5-year-old self but also received the key to the city as a token of the city’s gratitude at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.
She said that while she didn’t know who Moneta was when she posed for the ‘Street Scene’ photo 70 years ago, she said eventually she came to learn of the contributions the photo had.
“Although I did not know Mr. Sleet personally, I have had a quiet connection with him from the moment that I realized that my photograph had been taken through his lens and I am so grateful,” she said.
She noted that when she heads home back to Maryland, she will be working to ensure Sleet’s name is remembered as it’s deserved.
The RiverPark Center opened its doors again to the exhibit and Muhammad’s own personal story of how he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and his recollection of working with Moneta. In his eyes, an event like this was fit for Moneta and even due.
“He was due for something like this. To come together, to congeal and to bring people together to get people to know him better and what better place to do it in in Owensboro,” Muhammad said.
Muhammad was a photojournalist for Newsday when he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1985. He then went on to work for the New York Times from 1992 to 2014.
The second day had a reception open to the public, a showing of the play and the documentary ‘A Fine Rememberance’ which spotlighted several of Moneta’s colleagues along his journey professionally.
In totality, after the weekend was over, Greg and Lisa said that the legacy of their dad isn’t just amazing, it’s worldwide and events like this showcase that.
“[His legacy is] going to live forever. It’s going to help young people and I mean people of all races, not just Black people, everybody because that’s what he was about,” Lisa said.
Lisa said she and Greg are working on ways to continue the legacy beyond the festival. She noted that several of her father’s prints are in her home and they have access to some prints that others may not have.
“My brother and I are trying to work on something — which is in the wraps right now. We’ve got to do it the right way because I have a lot of his photographs in the house, videos explaining the Selma to Montgomery March and explaining the Pulitzer and how he was feeling and how he got that picture. So that’s what keeps me going is listening to his own words,” Lisa said.
Festival Chair Emmy Woosley said from every age, people were able to come together and enjoy the story of Sleet and that’s purely from the personality and character of Moneta that infected everything that was done over the weekend.
She said that this doesn’t seem the end of the celebration of Moneta’s legacy.
“I think there are definitely endless possibilities of things that we could do with this. And we already have interest from several different groups to bring this programming to them to share his story on even a larger scale within the Commonwealth, and perhaps even beyond the Commonwealth,” Woosley said.
One way they will continue the legacy is through a painting of Sleet. A portrait of Sleet has traveled through the community over the past year and is now heading to its home at H.L. Neblett Community Center. After traveling for so long, Woosley said it will finally land among young students who are able to daily admire Sleet’s story.
