Jazz = Culture: Storytelling - WEJF'25

Jazz = Culture: Storytelling considers Jazz as part of the African American cultural diaspora, and as an indigenous American music which evolved from the African American experience. The curator, Dr. James R. Gore, is an ethno-media-ologist whose scholarship focuses on African American culture as expressed through media. In 2023 Dr. Gore curated the live event “Jazz = Culture” at Seattle Benaroya Hall’s Raisbeck Music Center, a program that emphasized Jazz and the literary genre of poetry; the event was filmed for broadcast by the City of Seattle’s Seattle Channel and streamed via YouTube.

Jazz = Culture: Storytelling explores how artists of diverse art genres embrace Jazz—such as fine arts and literature. For example, Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance artist, not only used Jazz contextually in his writings but also utilized Jazz rhythmically within his works. During the talk, Dr. Gore will discuss Jazz’s cultural, social, and historical significance as it applies to African American culture’s tradition of storytelling as translated through art. He shares how Jazz became a transformational artform through which African Americans have creatively exhibited self-expression, self-identity, and changing cultural attitudes.

The program includes the 60-minute Seattle Channel broadcast, followed by a 45-minute talk and Q&A led by Dr. Gore, Executive Director of the Jackson Street Music Program. Promotion by Ariel Media (www.arielmedia.com).

Event sponsors:

2024 Sponsors: Prism, Realogics, Steve Davis, Earshot Jazz, Cascade PBS, KNKX, COBI, Kitsap County

Host or Publisher Bainbridge Island Museum of Art