Applications for Jazz Road Tours Grants Now Open
4/20/24 | By Crystal Gloistein
When my youngest daughter was in middle school, I discovered that Black History Month was a tricky proposition. Her sixth-grade teacher’s announcement of the February events was met by a chorus of mostly-white classmates who collectively groaned, “Do we have to talk about slavery again?”
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Key of She Jazz Jam 2024
1/28/24 | By Crystal Gloistein
When my youngest daughter was in middle school, I discovered that Black History Month was a tricky proposition. Her sixth-grade teacher’s announcement of the February events was met by a chorus of mostly-white classmates who collectively groaned, “Do we have to talk about slavery again?”
read more
5/20/21
Tony Miceli
Tony Miceli is one of those characters who, if they didn’t exist, he would have had to create: a musician as deeply into big rock as he is intimate jazz, a man who built a funky foundation upon the least likely of soulful instruments—vibraphone and marimba, and a serious leader and sideman with a rich sense of humor whose finicky focus has jumped from Monk and Mingus to Mozart and Bach in the past, leaving room for so much more in the future.
5/13/21
Coltrane Watch
The Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation (SMCDC) issued a press release on the status of the Coltrane House on May 3, 2021, and I called Tonnetta Graham, President of the SMCDC, the next day to get some clarity on a few things.
5/13/21
Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon
There’s a lot you can do with a sense of rhythm, a way with words, and a knack for telling a good story, but you have to be willing to persevere. Allow Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon’s story to illustrate.
5/6/21
Suzanne Cloud
4/29/21
Trapeta Mayson
As Philadelphia's fifth Poet Laureate, Trapeta Mayson merges her love of art with her love of community through words often accompanied by jazz music. Her poems often reflect her life story: born in West Africa, raised in North Philly, and now a licensed clinical social worker residing in Germantown.
4/29/21
Tyrone Brown
4/22/21
Shirley Scott
4/22/21
Hasaan Ibn Ali
4/22/21
Jonathan Whitney
4/15/21
Arturo Stable
4/14/21
Michelle Lordi
4/8/21
Yesseh Furaha-Ali
4/8/21
Sonia Sanchez
4/8/21
Jymie Merritt
4/2/21
Uri Caine
4/1/21
Coltrane Watch:
Interventions surrounding the Coltrane House over the last decade—from nearly all quarters of the Philadelphia jazz community—prove how anguished advocates have been over the condition and the future of the property.