Appearances and performances by—
Musicians
Duane “Cook” Broadnax was born in Philadelphia but now lives in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. in jazz performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Cook was the drummer for the late great jazz vocalist Little Jimmy Scott for 14 years up until his death in 2014. He has also played with Kevin Eubanks, Johnny Copeland, Savion Glover, Eartha Kitt, Rachell Ferrell and saxophonist Illinois Jaquet. Mr. Broadnax has recorded with actress/model/singer Vanessa Williams,
James Carter was born in Detroit, Michigan. On May 31, 1988, at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), Carter was a last-minute addition for guest artist Lester Bowie, which turned into an invitation to play with his new quintet. This was pivotal in Carter's career, putting him in musical contact with the world, and he moved to New York two years later. He has been prominent as a performer and recording artist on the jazz scene since the late 1980s, focusing on saxophones, flute, and clarinets. Carter has won DownBeat magazine's Critics and Readers Choice award for baritone saxophone several years in a row. He has performed, toured, and played on albums with Lester Bowie, Julius Hemphill, Kathleen Battle, the World Saxophone Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Angela L. Owens, internationally recognized for her “beauty and musicality” (The Times of London), as well as her “attractively full-bodied, passionate soprano voice” (Opera News), Angela is an in-demand performance artist, educator, and clinician. She is a former member of the voice faculty at Wagner College in New York and currently teaches voice at the University of Wisconsin (Parkside) and serves as a vocal coach for Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is also on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music.
Marcus Persiani is a consummate musician who possesses a diverse musical vocabulary. He’s toured the U.S. and the world with notable artists including Joseph Bowie’s Defunkt and Willie Colon. He’s also performed with Jerry and Andy Gonzalez, the Impressions, James “Jabbo” Ware, Vanessa Rubin, Savion Glover, and the Apollo Theater Showtime Band. Marcus has also shared the stage with immortals of the pantheon of greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Cecil McBee, Tito Puente, and Charlie Persip (Super-sound).
Lonnie Plaxico is the middle child in a family of musicians. He was born in Chicago and inherited a gift for music that was discovered and nurtured early. By the age of twelve, he had taught himself to play the electric bass, and he was soon venturing into Chicago's music scene, renowned for its mix of jazz, funk, and blues. In 1980 Plaxico moved to New York and soon began to appear with such artists as Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon, and Wynton Marsalis. His first extended tenure was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: between 1983 and 1986, Lonnie performed on twelve of Blakey's albums, including the Grammy Award-winning, New York Scene. In 1986, he joined Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, continuing with that group until 1993. He was a musical director and featured bassist for Cassandra Wilson for more than fifteen years.
Damien Sneed is a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman. He also worked with Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Brandie Inez Sutton, and many others. Sneed has served as music director for Grammy Award-winning gospel artists The Clark Sisters, Richard Smallwood, Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Marvin Sapp, Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole, and Kim Burrell, among others. Sneed is a 2020 Dove Award winner and 2021 NAACP Image Award winner. Sneed is currently a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, where he teaches graduate-level courses in conducting, African American Music History, a singer/songwriter ensemble, a gospel music ensemble, and private lessons in piano, voice, and composition.
Beverly Withers, a soprano in the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, from which she retired after twenty-five years, has been making music for as long as she can remember. She began taking piano lessons at the age of seven, and “practicing was always a delight.” Since the piano stood in the family living room, well within everyone’s earshot, Withers’ family often had to force her to stop practicing. “I actually remember the day that they had to peel me off the piano bench,” jokes Withers. Her love of music soon blossomed into what Withers herself describes as a “driving, relentless urge to sing.” Withers also studied with Dorothy Maynor, a famous recital artist who turned to the concert circuit because racial barriers prevented her from performing in opera companies, even though she had learned a hundred operatic roles. She describes Maynor as “very demanding–because she knew that we could deliver,” and says that she was “inspiring in every respect.”
Speakers
Donald Bogle, the author of the highly acclaimed book Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography, is one of the foremost authorities on African Americans in the movies. He also wrote the definitive biography of African American singer-actress Ethel Waters. His most current title Hollywood Black was adapted for the screen and will be presented at the Tribeca Film Festival. He is the author of the classic Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films.
Melanie Edwards is the granddaughter of J. Rosamond Johnson, composer of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” She is also the daughter of Mildred Johnson, the founder of the first Black independent school in Harlem, the Modern School. Melanie is also the director of the J. Rosamond Johnson Foundation.
Sally Jacobs is the author of Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson and a former reporter for the Boston Globe. She is also the winner of the coveted George Polk Award and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting with the Globe newsroom. She is the author of The Other Barack, a biography of Barack Obama’s father.
Akemi Kochiyama is the granddaughter of human rights activist, Yuri Kochiyama, Akemi is Co-Editor of Passing It On: A Memoir by Yuri Kochiyama and Co-Director of the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project. She is a Harlem-based scholar-activist, community builder, and fundraising professional with more than twenty years of experience in the nonprofit sector. The Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project’s (YKSP) mission is to carry on Yuri’s legacy—her passion for justice and lifelong commitment to connecting people, communities, and movements to each other. A graduate of Spelman College, Akemi is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. Program in Cultural Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Kendall Thomas is a scholar of comparative constitutional law and human rights whose teaching and research focus on critical race theory, legal philosophy, feminist legal theory, and law and sexuality. Thomas has taught at Columbia Law since 1986. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford Law School and a visiting professor in American studies and Afro-American studies at Princeton University. Actors
Daniel Carlton is an actor, storyteller, playwright, poet, director, and award-winning teaching artist who has appeared on New York, national, and international stages. His work has also been presented in schools, jails, homeless shelters, libraries, and every imaginable place to perform (except for outer space). Playwright credits include: “March On“ based on interviews with attendees of the 1963 March On Washington was presented at the Apollo. He has toured extensively with his “The Eagle In Harlem And Other Tales.” He was the inaugural storyteller of The Sugar Hill Museum of Art and Storytelling in Harlem.
Benja K. Thomas originated the role of “Rabby” in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fat Ham, directed by Saheem Ali, both on Broadway and at The Public Theater. Also on Broadway, Thomas stood by for Phylicia Rashad in Skeleton Crew, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Select theatre credits include Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Gurgis, directed by John Ortiz (Atlantic Theater Company); Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew (Long Wharf Theatre); Booty Candy and Barbecue by Robert O’Hara (Playwrights Horizons). She is a two-time Obie Award winner and a recipient of an AUDELCO Award.
Don't miss this chance to experience the spirit of Harlem through the stories of its most influential people.
Long-time Harlem resident and CUNY Professor Emeritus William Seraile highlights the significance of this project, stating, "Harlem lacks an identity. Not an identity of culture but rather an identity of its history: Who did what where? Who lived there? It begs the question: Where are the historic markers?"
Now, through the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Harlem has visual reminders of its unique history.
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