The rich sounds of jazz, R&B, blues and soul drifted across the grounds of Fair Park in Dallas in early September, as thousands of music lovers flocked to the ninth annual Riverfront Jazz Festival, headlined by seven-time Grammy Award winner Gladys Knight. Every element of the Labor Day weekend event — from talent bookings to stage production to sponsorships — was set in motion by Curtis King ’74 MA, the visionary who established the festival and has spent nearly five decades building the institution behind it. 

The Riverfront Jazz Festival is one of more than 100 programs and projects that The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, the institution King founded, produces and presents each year. The Dallas-based nonprofit preserves and perpetuates African, Caribbean and African American culture through the performing, visual, literary and cinematic arts. 

As president, King oversees the institution, which also serves roughly 50,000 students through youth arts education initiatives. Since founding The Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977, King has worn the hats of producer, director, educator, administrator, fundraiser and advocate, working to ensure that Black arts and culture flourish for generations. 

A Seed Is Planted

Long before he became an institution builder, King was a young boy from Coldwater, Mississippi, who fell in love with the theatre. His horizons broadened at Jackson State University, where he studied speech communications and drama. There, King found a mentor in Margaret Walker, an English professor and writer whose poetry and novel, Jubilee, helped shape the canon of Black American literature. 

In 1972, Walker invited King to a national conference for the original Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Founded in New York City in 1969, the organization carried forth the work of the earlier American Negro Academy, formed to preserve and advance Black scholarship, literature and arts. At the conference, King found himself surrounded by many of the most influential Black artists and intellectuals of the era, including Maya Angelou, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. 

“It was mind-boggling and moving, because these were people I had seen in movies and on television,” King said. “That conference inspired me to want to be a fellow of the Black Academy.” 

Soon after, King earned a graduate assistant fellowship in TCU’s department of theatre. While honing his craft as a director under the tutelage of Gaylan Jane Collier, he also mentored young actors and helped produce shows with the Sojourner Truth Players, Fort Worth’s first official Black theatre company. 

During his time at TCU King learned that the original Black Academy of Arts and Letters had folded due to administrative and financial struggles. Though the organization was gone, its mission had already taken root in King and would soon take on new life through his work.

At TCU, King earned a master’s degree in theatre and honed his craft as a director under Gaylan Jane Collier.

The Archives That Changed Everything

In 1976, King produced the Sojourner Truth National Cultural Arts Festival, gathering prominent Black theatre, dance, literary, musical, visual and cinematic artists in Fort Worth to share their work. 

Among the visitors was Joe Nash, a renowned Black dance historian King had met at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters conference, who arrived with four boxes of archives he had salvaged from a New York dumpster after the organization folded. Seeing King’s commitment to Black arts advocacy, Nash entrusted the boxes to him. 

The following year, King traveled around the country pursuing opportunities as a director and producer. But the four boxes in the trunk of his car remained at the forefront of his mind. 

“I had to ask myself, ‘Why was this put in your lap?’ ” King said. “Even if you become this famous director or producer, why are you doing it if the history of your work doesn’t have a place to rest its permanent head?” 

In 1977, with a clear purpose but only $500 to his name, King invested $250 to establish The Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters (later dropping “Junior” from the name). Operating out of his apartment in Dallas, he immediately began recruiting performers and community partners to help advance his mission. 

Few have witnessed King’s passion more closely than Tonea “Tommie” Stewart, an actress and longtime mentor of King’s who has known and worked alongside him since he was her student at Jackson State. 

“If Curtis feels that God wants him to do something, all hell will have to break loose to stop him,” Stewart said. “He is a go-getter.” 

That determination proved essential. Building the institution required fundraising and inspiring supporters to invest in a shared vision. Among those who rallied around his cause was Mary Suhm, former Dallas city manager. 

Over the years, Suhm championed several of King’s efforts, including helping to raise the funds to digitize the institution’s multimillion-dollar archive and secure a permanent home for the collection at the University of North Texas Libraries in Denton.

“I always admired what Curtis was doing,” Suhm said, “and I am drawn to people who are committed to what they believe in and go after it.” 

“If Curtis feels that God wants him to do something, all hell will have to break loose to stop him.”
Tonea Stewart

In 2023, President Joe Biden awarded King with a President’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The institution’s annual Black Music and the Civil Rights Movement Concert, which features a 100-voice choir, has won five Emmy Awards (Lone Star) from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 

The institution has attracted an impressive roster of award-winning performers, including stand-up comedy legend Dave Chappelle and Jennifer Holliday, who originated the lead role in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. 

Through initiatives like the Summer Youth Arts Institute and after-school programs with the Dallas school district, King has also helped nurture generations of young artists. Many alumni have gone on to careers in the arts, including singer-songwriter Erykah Badu, a five-time Grammy Award winner. 

In a full-circle moment, King wrote and directed Erykah Badu: The Musical, a production celebrating her artistic journey, for students in the 2022 summer program to perform. At the final curtain call, Badu surprised the cast and audience with a guest appearance. 

Stewart believes King’s gift for connecting with others has been the cornerstone of the institution’s longevity and impact. 

“Curtis loves people,” she said, “and he loves bringing out the best in them.” 

For Generations to Come

The Black Academy of Arts and Letters is approaching its 50th anniversary in 2027. The institution’s home at the convention center is undergoing a major renovation and expansion, and it is temporarily operating out of the former Women’s Museum in Fair Park. 

King hopes the expanded space will provide room for more archives, sustain existing programs and create opportunities for artists to experiment, collaborate and develop new work. 

King sees the future of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters as a continuum — one that stretches from the American Negro Academy to the original Black Academy to his institution today and beyond. 

According to King, at least 30 of the 53 employees working at the 2026 Summer Youth Arts Institute were alumni of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters’ outreach programs. 

“I know for a fact that the work I’ve done is being perpetuated,” King said. “It’s in [my mentees’] DNA, and they’re going to make sure the institution lives far beyond even their lifetime.” 

King has helped nurture generations of young artists through summer and after-school programs.

King shared the practices that have shaped his journey and helped him mentor others: 

Stay focused. It doesn’t matter if somebody calls you to the right, to the left, up or down. Keep looking straight ahead. If you stay focused and listen to your own spirit, you’ll never go wrong. 

Be consistent. Life has its ebbs and flows, but stay consistent and keep hammering away at it. I use the example of a faucet dripping water onto a rock. If you continuously stare at the rock, you won’t notice any changes happening. But if you keep your head down and keep working toward your goals, one day you’ll look up and realize the water has made a dent.

Be persistent. Go after the things you want over and over again. Margaret Walker used to tell me all the time, “Curtis, stay in the way.” If you keep trying, people will eventually have no choice but to listen to what you have to say. 

Maintain a spiritual connection. Your connection with God is your connection to humanity. If you stay connected with God and treat people how you want to be treated, then you’ll be just fine.