The Way We Were: Roxbury presents: Billie Holiday by Pat Braxton Band

The Way We Were: Roxbury Black Wall Street 1900–1965 presents: Billie Holiday at Slade’s is more than a live music experience, it is a cultural restoration. During the height of Black Wall Street eras across America, music venues were economic engines, safe havens, and gathering spaces where Black excellence, resistance, and joy coexisted. Billie Holiday’s music symbolized truth-telling, emotional freedom, and the lived realities of Black life during segregation and Jim Crow. Reimagining her sound inside Slade’s Bar & Grill a historic Roxbury institution which honors how jazz and blues fueled Black-owned businesses, sustained community wealth, and created spaces where Black culture thrived despite systemic barriers. This event reconnects modern audiences to the power of Black artistry as both economic and social infrastructure.

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