In collaboration with Make Jazz Trill Again, the Jazz Generations Initiative invites audiences to Voices of Healing & Liberation. On February 21 at Bedford Central Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, jazz and poetry come together for an evening of shared renewal and artistic freedom.
The Jazz Generations Initiative hosts its first major concert, marking a milestone in its mission to bring world-class artists into community-oriented spaces. Featuring performances by Amina Claudine Myers, Samora Pinderhughes, Courtney Bryan, Fred Moten, Brandon Lopez, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. The presence of these artists affirms the power of artistic truth through a living, breathing Black creative practice.
Brooklyn carries a deep history of Black cultural expression, passing an ancestral inheritance block by block through the borough. Held in a spiritual space, the night centers communal gathering through music and poetry. Jazz and poetry have long functioned as a form of shared language where lived experience and tradition meet, transforming creative expression into a means of resisting limitations imposed upon the community.
Founded by scholars and artists Robert O’Meally and Courtney Bryan, the program is shaped by intellectual rigor alongside musical vision. Columbia University professor and Center for Jazz Studies founder O’Meally notes, “Our mission as the Jazz Generations Initiative is to bring innovative programs that blow back the curtains usually thought to separate the arts to an ever-widening audience.” The program unites multiple artistic disciplines into a cohesive experience. In doing so, it creates space for different art forms to exist in conversation with one another.
Bedford Central Presbyterian Church is located at 1200 Dean St. in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Doors will be opening at 7PM on Feb. 21, and the music will begin at 7:30PM. Tickets are $25 and on sale now at dice.fm. Discounted tickets are available to students and members of the church.
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