WEST
PALM BEACH, FL -- Inauguration celebration festivities are set to take place
in Downtown West Palm Beach.
President Elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will be shown live at
noon on a jumbo screen in front of the library.
The ceremony will be replayed at night during the special Clematis by Night
Inauguration Celebration.
The evening portion of the event starts at 6 p.m. in Centennial Square.
People can enjoy live music, dancing, food, drinks, and a presidential
celebration program from 6 - 9:30 p.m.
The Salute to President Obama will be held at 7 p.m. including a flag
raising ceremony, the West Palm Beach Fire and Police Honor Guards, a
recitation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech, a video
montage of West Palm Beach's African-American pioneers, a special message
from Mayor Frankel, and a video replay of the swearing-in ceremony.
Brittany Bennett, 15, a sophomore at the Dreyfoos School of the Arts,
created the celebration poster.
The City will be giving the commemorative posters to the first 10,000 people
in attendance. The event is free. There will not be a Clematis by Night
event on Thursday, January 22, 2009. The Tuesday Inauguration Celebration
event replaces it.
She might not be able to vote -- yet -- but she can cast her
paintbrush with the best of them.
And now, the local high school student's artwork will be on display
for thousands in downtown West Palm Beach as they gather to celebrate
the presidential inauguration.
15 year-old Brittany Bennett, a sophomore at Dreyfoos School of the
Arts, says she wanted to convey the magnitude of Barack Obama's
inauguration in her artwork, which was chosen to be featured on
thousands of posters that will handed out to the public and put up
throughout downtown on inauguration day, Tuesday, January 20th.
"The mayor asked to convey hope and also to bring in the tropical-ness
of West Palm into it," Bennett said, "So I had [Obama] looking up so
that kind of represented hope. The colors and the palm trees in the
background here, bringing West Palm into it."
The city is handing out free posters with Bennett's artwork to
commemorate the event during the day-long celebration in downtown West
Palm Beach.
The event kicks off at noon, as the city broadcasts Obama's
swearing-in ceremony live on a jumbo LED screen in Centennial Square.
The festivities continue into the night, with food, fun, and music.
Bennett says that even though she's not old enough to cast a ballot,
she still recognizes the importance of this year's inauguration.
"I have the honor of, like, creating this -- that so many people are
going to see and remember," Bennett said. "It's [historic] and people
are going to remember it for that. It's a lot of exposure for my
artwork. It's very important that I'm linked with this."
If you go: City of West Palm Beach Inauguration Celebration. When:
Tuesday January 20th, 2009
By SONJA ISGER, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, Thursday,
January 15, 2009
Brittany Bennett wasn't old enough to
vote in the last election, but she's created a piece of art that will
become a piece of the inaugural tapestry for about 10,000 people.
The Dreyfoos School of the Arts sophomore
was tapped by those planning West Palm Beach's inaugural festival to
create art for a commemorative poster - 10,000 copies of which will be
handed out for free at Tuesday's downtown celebration.
"It's historical and people are going
to remember that," Bennett said after her work was unveiled yesterday
at the State of the City address.
Because they were short on planning
time, event organizers turned quickly to the school's staff to help
find a student who could deliver the goods, said volunteer Margie
Yansura - "We didn't really have time to do a contest or something."
Then Bennett got a very real-life
experience listening to what organizers wanted to see from her work.
"The mayor asked that the poster convey
hope and also bring in the 'tropicalness' of West Palm Beach into it,"
Bennett said. Her solution: a portrait of Obama chin-up with palm
trees in the background.
"She was very professional, just like
she was working with an ad agency," Yansura said. "This was just a
good experience and they really picked the right kid."
WEST
PALM BEACH, FL -- Inauguration celebration festivities are set to take place
in Downtown West Palm Beach.
