The theater will be taken over by the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation.
The legendary Dante Hall Theater in Atlantic City, New Jersey, will become a new beacon for the area’s jazz and Black history.
The theater will be revitalized into a cultural arts center that will touch on Atlantic City’s jazz presence and racial discrimination at its beaches. According to NJ.com, a local foundation that promotes the city’s Black history, the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation, will launch new programming at the space.
The organization recently obtained a $1.8 million grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in November. It emerged as one of 12 groups given the monetary award. It aims to transform unused properties in the state to benefit the surrounding community.
With the funding in tow, the foundation can now celebrate the city’s place in Jazz music. Moreover,they can also document its Black residents’ fight for integration. They plan to open a museum detailing this unique history.
Shelton added, “Now we can do even more powerful things in that building — indoor concerts, we can have plays, it’s going to be a Mecca.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
