Billie Holiday’s Philadelphia Walking Tour
Authoritarian regimes throughout history have targeted artists and cultural institutions. Early in his administration, President Trump issued an executive order that targeted the Smithsonian Institution.
Trump has taken over federal arts agencies and installed himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He threatens to withhold federal funding from organizations that do not bend the knee.
Nina Simone said an artist’s duty is to reflect the times and the situations in which they find themselves.
Today, we find ourselves in a situation in which Trump wants to control the narrative.
Fall of Freedom issued an urgent call to artists, creators and cultural workers to stand united against the assault on our constitutional rights and authoritarian control. Fall of Freedom is a celebration of art, courage, and free expression.
No artist reflected the times more courageously than Billie Holiday whose recording of “Strange Fruit” was named Song of the Century by Time magazine in 1999 and included in the National Recording Registry in 2002.
Join All That Philly Jazz and Scribe Video Center on November 22, 2025 for this nationwide wave of creative resistance.
The walking tour will be guided by All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson whose advocacy led to Billie’s induction into the Philadelphia Walk of Fame. We will visit the venues where Billie sang, the hotels where she stayed, and the site of the jazz club immortalized in the Tony Award®-winning “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.”
Along the way, we will stop at places connected to Nina Simone and Paul Robeson, artists who, like Billie, used their voices to speak truth to power.
The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To reserve your spot, scan the QR code or go here.
Art matters. Courage is contagious. We are the resistance.
Election Day 2025
Early voting is underway in many states. Election Day is Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
Your vote is your voice. A high voter turnout will send a message to the wannabe dictator in the White House. So be careful how you vote.
Visit a Cemetery Day 2025
The last Sunday in October is Visit a Cemetery Day. It’s an annual observance to promote a connection with the past, honor the memories of those who came before us, and appreciate the historical and cultural significance of cemeteries.
Before cities built public parks, cemeteries were the first green spaces open to everyone. In the 19th century, rural cemeteries were designed as peaceful, landscaped grounds where people could walk, picnic and reflect. Their winding paths, trees, and gardens offered an escape from crowded urban life. These “cities of the dead” influenced the design of public parks. Historic cemeteries like Laurel Hill in Philadelphia and Green-Wood in New York City remain vital, beautiful green spaces.
That history was lost on me in my youth. When I was in high school, I avoided taking the shortcut to school because I did not want to walk through a cemetery. Fast forward to today, St. Peter’s Churchyard is a stop on my Moses Williams’ Philadelphia walking tour. St. Peter’s is the final resting place of Moses’ enslaver, Charles Willson Peale.
Master silhouette artist Moses Williams was interred in Northwest Burial Ground on December 20, 1830.
At the time, the cemetery was located at 16th and Fairmount. Sometime between 1860 and 1875, the Northwest Burial Ground was sold, the bodies disinterred, and the land developed. The bodies were reinterred in Mount Moriah Cemetery in West Philadelphia. So presumably that’s where Moses’ remains are located.
I’m digging in the archives to confirm that Mount Moriah is indeed Moses’ final resting place. I want to find his remains so that I can see that Moses’ grave is kept clean.
A Stroll Through North Broad’s Jazz History
Join All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson for a stroll through North Broad’s storied jazz history. We will walk the streets of North Philly and stop at places that hold the stories of legends-in-the-making like Louis Armstrong, Clifford Brown, James Brown, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Patti LaBelle, Lee Morgan and Grover Washington Jr.
Our journey will take us to such sites as the Hotel Carlyle, Pyramid Club, Heritage House/Freedom Theatre, Cameo Room, Barber’s Hall, Flamingo Apartments, Nixon Grand Theater and Mitten Hall.
📅 Saturday, October 25, 2025
🕙 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
💬 Free and open to the public (space is limited)
Registration is required. Reserve your spot here.
“A Stroll Through North Broad’s Jazz History” is organized by Scribe Video Center. The North Philadelphia History Festival is supported by the William Penn Foundation.
Since his return to the White House, President Trump has punished individuals and institutions that refuse to bend the knee. In a guest essay published in the New York Times, Henry J. Farrell, a professor of democracy and international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, argues that collective action is the best defense against authoritarianism:
President Trump is trying to seize power that he is not entitled to under the law or the Constitution.
But Mr. Trump will fail in remaking American politics if people and institutions coordinate against him, which is why his administration is targeting businesses, nonprofits and the rest of civil society, proposing corrupting bargains to those who acquiesce and punishing holdouts to terrify the rest into submission.
This is one part of Mr. Trump’s bigger agenda to remake American politics so that everyone wants to be his friend and no one dares to be his enemy.
[…]
Those who oppose authoritarianism have to play a different game, creating solidarity among an unwieldy coalition, which knows that if everyone holds together, they will surely succeed.
Coordinated resistance stopped the National Park Service from removing interpretive signs at the President’s House for now.
In a recent editorial, the Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledged the impact of vigilance and collective courage:
Kudos to everyone who pushed back against Donald Trump’s attempt to whitewash the history of slavery at the President’s House site near the Liberty Bell.
Trump’s ridiculous executive order instructed the National Park Service to remove or cover up displays on federal sites that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
The arbitrary Sept. 17 deadline to remove the material has passed. For now, the President’s House exhibits remain untouched. But vigilance is still required, given Trump’s erratic policy approach and alarming cognitive state.
I am name-checked in the editorial. All That Philly Jazz is one of 255 signatories to an open statement pushing back against Trump’s attacks on arts and cultural institutions.
Mobilized by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, we are standing together to resist censorship:
Arts and culture bring people together. They spark joy, foster belonging, enrich communities, and help us imagine new possibilities. Arts and culture also open space for complexity—for grappling with different perspectives, for hearing what we might rather ignore, and for facing what makes us uncomfortable. Cultural organizations, including art, culture, history, and science museums, as well as libraries, theaters, and dance and performance spaces, make these encounters possible. They are key to the functioning of a democracy, as they promote freedom of expression, encourage critical thinking, and create important opportunities for public discussion and dissent.
[…]
As contributors to the sphere of art and culture, and as representatives of US art and cultural institutions that create space for art, ideas, innovation, and public engagement, we stand firm in the shared values that make for a robust arts and culture landscape: free expression, active debate, responsibility, and care.
Add your voice to the resistance at collective-courage.com.
Moses Williams’ Philadelphia Walking Tour
October is National Arts and Humanities Month. All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson will lead a walking tour of the people, places and events in Moses Williams’ Philadelphia.
The first Black museum professional and master silhouette artist, Moses Williams was born into slavery in August 1776 in the household of Charles Willson Peale, “Portrait Painter of the Revolution.”
Faye successfully nominated Moses Williams (1776-1830) for a Pennsylvania historical marker. The marker will be dedicated in 2026, the 250th anniversary of his birth.
The walk and talk will start at 3rd and Lombard streets, near the site of the home of Charles Willson Peale, and end at Philosophical Hall, near the proposed location for installation of Moses Williams’ historical marker (.06 mile).
Points of interest along the way include:
- Site of the home of entrepreneur and abolitionist James Forten;
- Charles Willson Peale’s gravesite;
- Church where George Washington and Absalom Jones worshipped;
- Site of the home of Francis Johnson, the forefather of jazz;
- Site of the first Black Episcopal church in the United States;
- Locations of Peale’s Museum; and
- Organization founded by Benjamin Franklin that has a collection of Moses Williams’ silhouettes.
The walking tour will be held on select Saturdays in 2026. To be added to the mailing list, send your name and email address to phillyjazzapp@gmail.com.
September was designated Gospel Music Heritage Month in 2008 following the passage of House Joint Resolution 90 sponsored by the late Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The resolution highlighted gospel music’s deep roots in the African American experience and acknowledged its influence on other genres, including jazz, blues, soul, R&B and rock.
Gospel music is how African Americans got over during the Jim Crow era.
Formed in 1928, the Dixie Hummingbirds were one of the most popular and influential gospel groups. Their best-known recordings include “Thank You For One More Day,” “I’ve Been Born Again,” and “Loves Me Like a Rock” which won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance.
On Wednesday, September 24, 2025, the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection will host a talk with Dr. Lynn Peterson, author of “Flying with the Birds: Rev. Joe Williams, The Last Original Member of the Iconic Dixie Hummingbirds.”
Also on September 24, I will give a gallery talk about the exhibit that I curated for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, “Message In Our Music.” I will highlight objects in the exhibit related to gospel music, including Bishop Richard Allen’s collection of hymns and spirituals, a program from the Jubilee Singers’ 1873 concert at the Academy of Music, and a reel-to-reel tape of a live performance by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
The gallery talk is free and open to the public. To register, go here.
Whitewashing American History
Harriet Tubman began her journey to freedom on Monday, September 17, 1849.
On Monday, September 15, 2025, the Washington Post reported on President Trump’s plan to whitewash the everyday brutality of slavery, including removing the photograph of self-emancipated Peter from Fort Pulaski National Monument in Georgia. The photograph of “a typical Negro” was first published in Harper’s Weekly on July 4, 1863.
Abolitionists used the iconic photograph to raise awareness of “how bad slavery was.” I recently viewed an original print of “The Scourged Back” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
President Trump wants to erase the truth that President George Washington enslaved nine Black people and signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 in the shadow of the Liberty Bell.
According to the Post, interpretive panels at the President’s House have been flagged for removal:
In his executive order, Trump singled out the “corrosive ideology” at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, where the founders signed the Declaration of Independence.
…
“This is not just a handful of signs that tell the story of slavery,” said Ed Stierli, senior Mid-Atlantic regional director at the advocacy group National Parks Conservation Association. “This is a place that tells the complete story not just of slavery in America, but what it was like for those who were enslaved by George Washington.”
Trying to extricate slavery from the President’s House exhibit would fundamentally change the nature of the site, said Cindy MacLeod, who was superintendent of Independence National Historical Park for 15 years until 2023.
Party with a Purpose at the Johnson House
September is International Underground Railroad Month, a celebration of the history and legacy of the Underground Railroad. Events highlight stories of the self-emancipators who used a covert network of antislavery activists and safe havens to escape bondage.
Frederick Douglass embarked on his journey to freedom on September 3, 1838. Harriet Tubman began her escape on September 17, 1849.
Archival records show that William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad, held meetings at the Johnson House, an Underground Railroad station in Philadelphia. The Johnson House Historic Site is a National Historic Landmark, the highest designation for a historic property.
With the whitewashing of American history, the Johnson House stands as a powerful memorial to faith, resilience and resistance.
This International Underground Railroad Month, the Johnson House will host a party with a purpose, Jammin’ in the Garden 2025: A Celebration of Music and Community, on Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. The fundraiser will support their preservation work and the Center for Social Advocacy.
To get tickets, go here.
All That Philly Jazz 