Category Archives: Advocacy

Advocacy, Lee Morgan

Black History Month: Lee Morgan and the Power of Art

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History designated “African Americans and the Arts” as the theme for Black History Month 2024. African Americans used art to both survive and escape enslavement:

The suffering of those in bondage gave birth to the spirituals, the nation’s first contribution to music. Blues musicians such as Robert Johnson, McKinley ‘Muddy Waters’ Morganfield and Riley “BB” B. King created and nurtured a style of music that became the bedrock for gospel, soul, and other still popular (and evolving) forms of music.

In his address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the importance of jazz in paving the way for the Civil Rights Movement:

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

[…]

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

Lee Morgan personified the power of art. Lee grew up in Tioga, a neighborhood in North Philly, surrounded by a coal yard, railroad tracks, factories belching smoke and warehouses. Art empowered him to see beyond his immediate environment and imagine a future as a jazz musician. Within months of graduating from Jules E. Mastbaum Area Vocational/Technical School, Lee joined the Dizzy Gillespie Band and recorded his first album for Blue Note Records.

An organizer of the Jazz and People’s Movement, Lee secured his place in history with “The Sidewinder,” a rare crossover hit that was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Nicetown-Tioga Library and All That Philly Jazz are cohosting a community celebration of Lee Morgan and Tioga’s cultural heritage on Friday, February 9, 2024.

The event is free and open to the public. To reserve a spot, go here.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage

Happy Birthday, Dr. King

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Apollo Theater is hosting its 18th annual celebration of Dr. King’s heavenly birthday, “Uptown Hall: The Inconvenient King,” in partnership with WNYC and March on Washington Film Festival. A panel discussion focusing on Dr. King’s enduring legacy on the culture, and the context and complexity of racial discrimination, will be followed by music, spoken word and other forms of creative expression.

The celebration will be presented live at the Apollo and available via livestream on Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 2:00 pm ET.

400 Years of African American History, Advocacy

On January 16, 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15 which promised the formerly enslaved 40 acres and a mule. The descendants of enslaved Africans are still waiting for their inheritance, preferably payable by check.

The call for reparations dates back to 1783 when Belinda Royall petitioned the Massachusetts General Court (the state legislature) requesting a pension based on her years of enslavement from the proceeds of her master’s estate. Fast forward to today, African Americans from California to New York are saying it’s past time for reparations.

On June 22, 2023, City Council authorized the creation of the Philadelphia Reparations Task Force to “study and develop reparations proposals for Black Philadelphian descendants of enslaved Africans in the United States.”

The Cost of Inheritance: An America ReFramed Special explores “the nation’s legacy of systemic inequities to modern-day America, introducing audiences to descendants of enslaved persons and slave owners, profiling their complex intertwined histories and detailing how their quest to bridge divides galvanized them to seek reparations together.”

The Cost of Inheritance: An America ReFramed Special premieres on Monday, January 8, 2024, at 10:00 pm ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage Preservation, Jazz Landmarks, Jazz Venues, Lee Morgan

1st Annual Music Landmarks Virtual Fest

All That Philly Jazz was an official partner of the 1st Annual Music Landmarks Virtual Fest, organized by the American Music Landmarks Project. The virtual event celebrated the architectural legacy of American popular music.

The Douglass Hotel, former home of the Cotton Club, Show Boat and Bijou Café, was featured on Day 2.

The Aqua Lounge, future location of Lee Morgan’s historical marker, was featured on Day 4.

Ticket holders have access to all Fest content through November 30, 2023.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Preservation

Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places

Black sacred places matter. From Bishop Richard Allen preaching at Mother Bethel, Denmark Vesey planning a slave rebellion at Mother Emanuel, and Minister Malcolm X teaching at Muhammad’s Temple of Islam No. 12, Black sacred places have been the heart and soul of the African American community.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., an advisor to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, observed: “No pillar of the African American community has been more central to its history, identity, and social justice vision than the ‘Black Church.’”

Preserving Black Churches is a project of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund which is led by National Trust for Historic Preservation Senior Vice President Brent Leggs. In an interview with Robin Givhan of the Washington Post, Leggs said:

It’s critically important that we preserve the physical evidence of our past, that we preserve the historic buildings that are imbued with legacy and memory, that we preserve the profound stories that are embodied in the walls, landscapes, and cemeteries stewarded by African American churches.

Rooted in the Black experience, jazz both has been a sanctuary and found sanctuary in the church. Now a jazz standard, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” is a celebration of the African American religious tradition.

The Ku Klux Klan’s bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church which killed four Black children moved John Coltrane, the grandson of a prominent African Methodist Episcopal minister, to compose “Alabama.”

Partners for Sacred Places and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently launched the Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places (PFBSP). The three-year project will expand public access to purpose-built religious properties of architectural, historical or cultural significance, regardless of denomination, that are operated and owned by an active community of faith. PFBSP will provide planning and programming grants, as well as capital grants to support Black congregations’ efforts to maintain their properties.

Rev. Betsy Ivey, director of PFBSP, said:

The public’s response to the murder of George Floyd in June 2020 gave focus to the unanswered needs of our city’s Black communities. Religious properties have space that can be developed to respond to these needs in creative and innovative ways after worship. The houses of worship that are selected to participate in this grant program will provide welcoming and affirming space to the public that will benefit all of our communities.

PFBSP will provide up to $10,000 in planning grants and up to $250,000 in 1:2 matching grants ($2 granted for each $1 raised) for the planning and execution of projects that expand equitable access to Black-led historic sacred places. Eligibility guidelines are available here. The application deadline is January 31, 2024.

Register here for the November 17 info session on completing the application. If you have any questions, contact PFBSP Director Betsy Ivey by email or by phone at (215) 567-3234 x29.

Advocacy, Harriet Tubman

And the winner is…

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In March 2022, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney announced plans to give Wesley Wofford, a white artist who has never won a public commission for a Harriet Tubman statue, a $500,000 “direct commission”; in other words, a no-bid commission. In a city that is 40 percent African American, Black artists were not given an opportunity to compete for a public commission for the Black icon.

Black women did what we do and made some noise. In August 2022, the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) announced the City was taking a “new direction” and issued an open Call for Artists. Fifty artists, including Wofford, responded to the call. Wofford didn’t make the cut. The five semifinalists, all of whom are Black, were announced in March 2023.

Mayor Kenney and OACCE will announce the winning artist on October 30, 2023.

Great God Almighty, it’s been a long time coming.

Advocacy

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

Drummer and bandleader Max Roach’s music is at the intersection of art, activism and resistance. His groundbreaking “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite” was influenced by the then-emerging Civil Rights Movement.

This week, American Masters will premiere Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes.

The documentary explores the life of the pioneering drummer and cultural activist who spoke truth to power. The film traces Roach’s epic musical journey from bebop to hip-hop. It features Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln; Philadelphians Jimmy Heath, Sonia Sanchez and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson; and music legends Harry Belafonte, Abdullah Ibrahim, Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Randy Weston.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes premieres Friday, October 6 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App.

Advocacy

National Voter Registration Day 2023

In the coming months, you will be told the 2024 Election is the most consequential election since, well, the last presidential election. The hype notwithstanding, the right to vote is the right that secures all other rights. If voting didn’t matter, conservatives would not try to block access to the ballot box.

National Voter Registration Day, the country’s largest single-day voter registration drive, is September 19, 2023. Since 2012, more than five million Americans have been registered to vote on this civic holiday.

Your vote matters. You can register to vote here. If you are already registered, check your status to make sure you are #VoteReady. And on Election Day, be careful how you vote.