If you judge a woman by the company she keeps, Sandrell Rivers comes off shining. Among her friends: Gospel maestro Bobby Jones, whom she met at Tennessee State in the 1960s. Decades later they attended poet Maya Angelou's 80th birthday party hosted by Oprah Winfrey. Their friendship was long-lasting.
Rivers, a tireless champion of bringing the arts to the underserved, died New Year's Day, and the community lost a good friend.
In 1990, Thelma and China Valles, sponsors of the Sunshine Jazz Organization, became friends with Rivers. They shared ideas, planned events, and traveled together.
A native Miamian, Rivers was a friend to all she met along the way who shared interest in her passions: the arts and the African Diaspora. Celebrating the two, she traveled from Miami's Liberty City to Nigeria.
At Rivers' January memorial, Andrew Osolase, president, and Desmond Alufohai, founding chairman, of the Africa Reconnect Program Inc. said Rivers saw a border-less world. She offered herself, her industry, her talents, and her energies to action toward reconnecting with Africa, the motherland.
A trustee for the Nigerian-American Foundation and a matron of the Gambian Association of Florida, Rivers regularly attended events hosted by African organizations. She dressed royally from head to toe in West African regalia. Rivers often said that she was an African not because she was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in her.
In 2004, Rivers was crowned a chief by King Akran of the Badagry Kingdom in Lagos, Nigeria. Upon returning home, friends and colleagues honored her with a ceremony at the Joseph Caleb Neighborhood Center Auditorium.
She graciously accepted the title and continued her Herculean efforts to provide access to the arts. Jack Kardys, director of the Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation Department, credits Rivers for being instrumental in shaping the department's presentation of the arts.
Rivers spent many hours as a volunteer on the board of the Urban League of Greater Miami and with her 1965 Northwestern Senior High School classmates. She led many collaborative projects, including the Heart of the City, Arts in the Parks, and the Music Month Festival.
Shirley Richardson, president of the Diaspora Arts Coalition, describes Rivers as knowledgeable, visionary, and eloquent with strong community connections. Rivers was selected by community artists as the founding president of the Diaspora Arts Coalition.
A mother and grandmother, Rivers was also a mentor to aspiring and veteran literary, visual, and performing artists. She gave advice and helped advance careers. Chief Sandrell Rivers was a quintessential African-American woman and an ambassador for her community. She is greatly missed.
Dorothy Jenkins Fields, PhD, is a historian and founder of the Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida Inc. Send feedback, questions or news to djf@bellsouth.net