As Durham’s historically Black Hayti community faces threats of development and displacement, the Hayti Heritage Center continues to expand on its 50-year legacy of uplifting Black arts and culture in a new form: its inaugural season.

The season consists of 14 events from January to November 2026, with most ticket prices between $25 to $35 per person. Featured guests include renowned Black creatives such as the Grammy Award-winning Branford Marsalis Quartet, critically-acclaimed literary fiction author Brit Bennett and award-winning cartoonist Keith Knight. The season also features events like the Hayti Heritage Film Festival — an annual showcase of Southern Black cinema — in March and the inaugural Hayti Business Expo in August.

The Hayti Heritage Center’s artistic director, Tyra Dixon, worked with the center’s interim executive director, King Kenney, to construct the season. Dixon said the two of them considered the current global, social and political climate to workshop a list of guests that would fit Hayti’s demographic.

“We’re trying to curate these seasons in a very thoughtful way that speaks to the mission and what Hayti was created to do, which was to preserve the African American legacy,” Dixon said.

The Hayti Heritage Center has long stood as a space created by Durham’s Black residents, for Durham’s Black residents. 

Originally, the Hayti Heritage Center’s building, located on Old Fayetteville Street, housed the historic St. Joseph’s AME Church. After the congregation relocated, the building reopened in 1975 as the center. According to the organization’s website, it provided space for concerts, civic events and celebrations as a “stage for Black creativity and scholarship.”

Amid ongoing debate surrounding development projects contributing to the displacement of Hayti residents and gentrification of Durham, the center has remained a pillar of the community. Dixon said that over the years, it has partnered with organizations, housed events like the Jambalaya Soul Slam and Bull Durham Blues Festival and welcomed well-known Black performers like Isaac Hayes and Buddy Guy.

“That’s a legacy that nobody else can say, that some of these people have walked through their doors and performed in such a historic place in Durham,” Dixon said. “It’s contributed greatly to our arts and culture scene.”

Although the center has hosted special guests and events before, this is the first time it’s packaging a full year of programming in one cohesive season. Dixon said the prominent artists and thought leaders featured throughout the season will take the stage to showcase their work while promoting deep conversations with attendees.

To Dixon, the season is about more than just preserving Hayti’s legacy — it’s about continuing the center’s story. From the construction of Highway N.C. 147 destroying hundreds of homes and businesses, to the recent Heritage Square rezoning project that was withdrawn right before council members could vote on its status, development has always had a looming, and often threatening, presence over Hayti.

“When we’re thinking about this type of programming that we’re doing, we’re taking all of that into consideration and trying to replenish the foundation that was disturbed by urban renewal,” Dixon said.

One of the creatives featured in the season is Monèt Marshall. Marshall describes herself as an artist specializing in theater, film and “social practice,” which she says involves using art to connect communities. She currently serves on the Hayti Heritage Center’s board.

Although she only joined the board in early 2025, Marshall has collaborated with the center for years. In 2020, she partially filmed one of her first short films, “prophesy,” within its walls. She wrote, performed, co-directed and co-produced the production.

So when Dixon and King reached out to her and asked her to do a show on Juneteenth weekend, Marshall couldn’t say no.

Marshall’s Juneteenth performance will be her take on Anna Deavere Smith’s “Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities,” a 1992 one-person play that explores the aftermath of the 1991 Crown Heights riot through the perspectives of real African American and Jewish community members. Marshall’s rendition of the show will be directed by her friend, Shamika Holloway. 

Marshall said she’s excited to work with Holloway and bring the 120-page script to life at the center.

Although she was born and raised in New York, Marshall has generations of family roots in North Carolina. As a creative in Durham, she said one of the first questions people ask her is if she knows about Hayti and the center.

“I can’t remember when I first learned about Hayti,” she said. “I think it’s just there. It’s just part of the story and part of the fabric of Black arts and culture in the city.”

Historically, Marshall said the Hayti Heritage Center’s physical presence stands as a symbol representing how Black creatives in Durham have been “making and dreaming.” But in the future, she said the center could continue to expand its legacy as a symbol of support for Black artists by offering more of itself to the community.

Dixon said the goal of the season is to introduce the local community to what the center has to offer and to people they may or may not already be familiar with. The center’s great hall holds approximately 320 people, she said, with each performance offering student discounts and accessible seating options. She hopes to see every night sell out.

“We typically had an older audience, and so our goal now is to broaden that demographic and reach beyond a certain age or socioeconomic level, and so we want to just kind of run the gamut so that everybody feels welcome and seen at Hayti,” she said.

E’Vonne Coleman, the former executive director of the Durham Arts Council and former special assistant to the chairman for the National Endowment of Arts, remembers when her close friend Walter Norflett served as the center’s program director in 1985. At the time, Coleman worked with the NEA’s expansion arts program.

Coleman wanted Norflett to apply for a grant under the program. The center’s board was hesitant about what the grant might mean for future event expectations.

Coleman flew down from DC to convince the board to sign the necessary paperwork for the grant. They did, and the Hayti Heritage Center received its first external funding.

When Coleman moved to Durham from D.C., she found the center to be her “cultural home.” It still is today. Coleman said she’s excited to see Hayti present its long history of arts programming support in one pre-packaged season.

“What this new season presents is an elevated level, one announcing everybody at the same time, bringing world class acts [of] variety,” she said. “And I think the community is excited to see, ‘What else?’”

Edited by Melodi Carty and Jesse Carrico