6th Annual Black Arts Festival at Cathedral Village October 2, 2021
October 2, 2021. Roxborough. The Tony Williams Quartet performs at the Jazz Fest at the 6th Annual Black Arts Festival at Cathedral Village.
“While other cities like New Orleans, New York and Chicago tend to get more attention in jazz history, Philadelphia has played a major role. Many of the most influential jazz players, such as John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, McCoy Tyner, lived and developed their music in Philadelphia.”
“Cathedral Village is a continuing care community in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia and it is overwhelmingly, a white residential community. [The Black Arts Festival] was started by a retired UCC minister here, Reverend Robert Polk. The two main purposes have been really to educate folks who live here and those who come from the community about the cultural gifts that come from the African American experience in America, and then to send a welcoming message.”
— Dennis Brunn, Chairperson of the Black Arts Festival 2021 Planning Committee
The Tony Williams Quartet with guest performs
The Tony Williams Quartet with guest performs
“While other cities like New Orleans, New York and Chicago tend to get more attention in jazz history, Philadelphia has played a major role. Many of the most influential jazz players, such as John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, McCoy Tyner, lived and developed their music in Philadelphia.”
JAZZ
A POEM BY JIM COCHRAN, JAZZ PIANIST AND COMPOSER AND CATHEDRAL VILLAGE RESIDENT
Program from 2021 Cathedral Village Black Arts Festival.
You hear it
In your bones, your blood,
This whisper, this wind, this gale
Of sculptured sound
Born of instant moments,
Brimming, bounding,
Carrying you
To half-forgotten days,
Aches of dreams,
Joys of what just might be —
This beat
On punctuating beat,
Joy on sorrow.
Grace born of
The very mud of life,
Sends the soul
Swooping, soaring,
Captured feelings freed
In harmonizing echoes,
Surrounding
A lonely prayer,
A landscape
A tumult,
A sway of mind and motion,
Heights
Of holy ground.
BLACK ARTS SHOWCASE: ART OBJECTS FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF CATHEDRAL VILLAGE RESIDENTS
Black Arts Showcase at Cathedral Village, October 2021
“People who live here are asked to lend their art to an exhibit area for the festival. That’s an interesting experience. People learn through talking with the person who brought it there. ”
— Dennis Brunn, Chairperson of the Black Arts Festival 2021 Planning Committee
Featured artwork by Philadelphia artist Claude Clark
“Growing Dahlias” painting featured next to high school photo of the artist, Claude Clark at Black Arts Showcase.
High school photo of the artist Claude Clark. Clark grew up in Manayunk and graduated from Roxborough High School in 1935, at Black Arts Showcase
“As a child in the churches, the schools and the community, I dreamed of a destiny. My search became a single purpose for the dignity of Black Americans instead of attempting to solve the concerns of all humanity. Early on, I was convinced a creative spirit must soar beyond compartments of religion and politics.”
Claude Clark, 1947, Pennsylvania. Photo credit.
Images and documentation by Caitlin Coad
Learn more about the Cathedral Village Black Arts Festival.
Learn more about Claude Clark.
