June is Black Music Month; Celebrating JUNETEENTH Week
The Start of Black Music Month
Thursday, June 1, 6-8 pm
It Ain’t Nothing but the Blues
All the way from the Mississippi Delta, Dr. Rolando Herts will make a guest appearance to bring us greetings and enlightenment about the musical legacy of the Mississippi Delta Blues, the foundation for America’s original sound of Jazz, Gospel, R&B and Hip-Hop. This event, in conjunction with the Jersey Jazz & Blues Foundation, kicks off Black Music Month. Dr. Rolando Herts is the Director of The Delta Center of Cultural Learning, at Delta State University in Mississippi. Musical guest TBA, bring your own lawn chairs. FREE EVENT! You MUST register to be seated at shanel@tthomasfortunefoundation.org
The Start of JUNETEENTH WEEK
Sunday, June 11 – 12 Noon-3 pm
T. Thomas Fortune Lecture Series @ Two River Theater
On A Sunday Afternoon with Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, guest speaker for The T. Thomas Fortune 2023 Lecture Series and Luncheon, in conjunction with Two River Theater. Dr. Muhammad is a leading scholar and the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race & Public Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and the former Director of The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in NYC.
He is the author of The Condemnation of Blackness. The T. Thomas Fortune Foundation is thrilled to have him join us at Two River Theater, to help launch the new upcoming exhibit, The Black Press: Stewards of Democracy. His talk will be followed by the matinee show of Two Sisters & A Piano, which is about revolution and freedom, by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Nilo Cruz. To purchase tickets log onto the website www.tthomasfortunefoundation.org and click on the Dr. Muhammad image, tickets are $100. Doors open at 11:30 am.
12:00 -1 pm – Lunch and meet & greet with Dr. Khalil G. Muhammad
1:15 pm – 2:15 pm – keynote address and Q & A
3 pm – Two Sisters & A Piano
Black History Bus Tour Sites in Monmouth County
Tuesday, June 13, 10 am – 3 pm
Get on the bus for Part I of the Black Historic Sites Tour sponsored by Brookdale Community College Lifelong Learning Program. The tour guides will be Historian Rick Geffken and Gilda Rogers, Brookdale History Professor, and executive director of the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center. The bus will depart from Brookdale at 10 am and make stops at Wampum Park, the site where Samuel “Mingo” Jack Johnson was lynched in Eatontown; Cedar View Cemetery in Lincroft; and the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, where lunch will be served. For more information contact Noreen Kane at
nkane@brookdalecc.edu
A Swinging JUNETEENTH Holiday
Friday, June 16, 6 – 9 pm
Celebrating Count Basie
Late Night Basie is the recently released tribute album to William “Count” Basie, the “Kid from Red Bank,” which features musicians such as Terence Blanchard and Jazzmeia Horn, The Count Basie Orchestra, Talib Kweli and more.
The Listening Party will kick-off with a discussion by Vincent Pelote, the Senior Archivist and Digital Preservation Strategist at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University- Newark, who will take us on a jazz excursion of the Late Night Basie album. Pelote is one of the contributors to the Oxford Companion to Jazz. Join us for a SWINGIN’ GOOD TIME! Music and refreshments provided. FREE EVENT! Donations accepted. Register to be seated with
shanel@tthomasfortunefoundation.org
The Shoulders on Which We Stand
Saturday, June 17, 3-5 pm
Author Talk with Marcia Young Cantarella
A Great Civil Rights Leader’s Daughter, Marcia Young Cantarella, will sign her book, Recognize & Give Thanks and talk about her father the great Whitney M. Young, who was the Executive Director of the National Urban League, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. As a trained social worker, Whitney M. Young was the architect behind President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”
Young, a member of the Big 6 Civil Rights Leaders (A Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King), played a pivotal role in helping to usher in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, under the Johnson Administration.
Cost: $35 including the book and refreshments. A family-friendly event. Register with shanel@tthomasfortunefoundation.org