Our City. Our Music. Our Writers

Two eminent, essential local writers on jazz are featured in the February 11 session of the series.

Georgetown University Professor Maurice Jackson has just published Rhythms of Resistance and Resilience: How Black Washingtonians Used Music and Sports in the Fight for Equality. He will also talk about DC Jazz: Stories of Jazz Music in Washington, DC., which he co-edited. This book comprehensively chronicles the overlooked and pivotal role our city played in this seminal American music. DC was not only home to profoundly influential jazz musicians, promoters, and institutions, our city’s vibrant jazz scene helped to hasten desegregation.

NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins will talk about Ain’t But a Few of Us. Black Music Writers Tell Their Story, noted by reviewers as superb, overdue, and vital reading for any jazz fan. Though performers and innovators in this genre are overwhelmingly African American, Black music writers and editors are woefully underrepresented.

Maurice Jackson teaches Atlantic History and African American Studies and is an Affiliated Professor of Performing Arts at Georgetown University. His publications include Quakers and Their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause; African Americans and the Haitian Revolution; and liner notes to two jazz CDs by Charlie Haden and Hank Jones. He served as inaugural chair of the DC Commission on African American Affairs and was inducted into the Washington, D.C., Hall of Fame.

In April 2024, Willard Jenkins was named National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master, a tribute to his ardent and expert promotion of jazz and its importance to American culture since the 1970s. He is a writer, educator, historian, and arts consultant who currently serves as the DC Jazz Festival’s artistic director and WPFW radio host. He has written on jazz for local, numerous regional, national, and international publications; taught jazz history for two universities; conducted oral interviews for the Smithsonian; and led the development of jazz programs and resources for arts organizations. A partial bibliography includes his collaboration on Randy Weston’s autobiography, African Rhythms; his blog The Independent Ear; and a 13-episode documentary podcast, “No Regrets,” on Billie Holiday. Further information at www.SavageContent.com.