By Anne Levin

Just before Black History Month last year, the Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) was approached by the community service organization Rays of Hope about using the building on Paul Robeson Place to showcase a free event called the Live Black Museum. Happy to partner with other nonprofits, ACP director Adam Welch agreed to the request.

But he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The event turned out to be so unique that Welch and colleagues didn’t hesitate to bring it back for this year’s Black History Month observance. The Live Black Museum, in which some 30 teenagers take on the personas of famous contributors to Black history and culture, returns Sunday, February 25 from 3 to 6 p.m.

“It is so amazing,” Welch said. “They take over the whole building. What these kids do is learn a little biography about a very specific person in history — whether it’s Paul Robeson, Serena Williams, Malcolm X, or whomever — and they become that person. They dress like them, and stand on a little platform. There’s a red dot in front of them. You press it and they come alive. They become the person for two or three minutes, and tell their story. Then the viewer moves on to the next person. It’s incredible. Hundreds of people attend. It’s chaos, but it’s so worth it.”

The organization supplies tables of free food, and vendors selling books, artwork, jewelry, and more are stationed throughout the building. “They use every room. Some are in the gallery, some are in the dance studio, some are upstairs,” said Welch. “I had never heard of anything like this before. They explained it to me, but I still had no idea what to expect.”

Rays of Hope was started in 2006 by a group of mothers to teach their children the importance of giving back to the community. The children served at soup kitchens and sang at nursing homes during the Christmas holidays. The organization expanded to involve more and more young people, becoming a nonprofit in 2015. The Rays of Hope website describes its mission as “to engage youth in community service projects that inspire and empower them to serve in ways that will promote leadership.” Their goal “is for our youth to not only identify community needs, issues, and challenges, but have a desire to advocate for and then take action to make a difference in their communities.”

An hour or so into last year’s event at the Arts Council, Welch began calling members of Princeton’s Black community like historian Shirley Satterfield and Princeton Councilman Leighton Newlin, to urge them to come by and see what was going on. “They were resistant at first, but I told them, ‘You’ve got to get over here.’ They did, and they were blown away. They stayed all day.”

Most of the hundreds of people who were on hand for last year’s event were connected to Rays of Hope or family members of the teenagers taking part. Welch is hoping more locals will attend on Sunday.

“It was good to have people come from out of town and see our place. But not enough Princetonians were here last year. People need to see this,” he said. “It’s a really cool event that highlights all of these famous figures, historical and otherwise. I could not believe how much I enjoyed it. It all comes together so wonderfully and beautifully.”

The Arts Council is at 102 Witherspoon Street. For more information, visit Raysofhope.org/event-details/live-black-museum-1.