This was a conversation long overdue, according to the audience Sunday evening at New College of Florida’s Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion.
Packed in the auditorium were more than 75 people attending a community discussion on increasing gentrification in Newtown and the effect it’s had on the area’s longtime residents.
The event also doubled as a first-time public screening of a 20-minute documentary on the history of Sarasota’s historically black community. Composed of multiple interviews with community members, the film was created by the Newtown Conservation Historic District’s lead consultant, Vickie Oldham, along with film editor Gary Probst. In the front row of the auditorium sat many of those interviewed in the film, as well as people Oldham called “stakeholders in the Newtown community,” such as former mayor Fredd Atkins and building contractor Terrill Salem.