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While many of us are eager to put last year behind us, members of our community, including families and small business owners, are facing increased economic hardships. During these times, we have an opportunity to support one another and continue finding new ways to defy that distance. On June 2nd, United Way of Greater Newark (UWGN) will host its 2nd Annual Virtual 5K Walk/Run on Global Running Day 2021, a worldwide celebration of running that will virtually unite people across the world in a global effort to encourage wellness and strengthen community. A portion of the proceeds will support UWGN’s educational pillar, Newark Thrives!, and provide grants to select providers who are developing learning initiatives in Newark this summer. These programs will focus on art, STEAM, college readiness, mentoring, and sports & recreation. If you’re interested in participating in the event, register here. If you’d like to donate to support the event in another capacity, visit: https://uwnewark.org/run-united/ No matter where or how you move your feet, whatever your #ReasontoRun, let’s Run United.

The National Arts Club presents a live outdoor concert by Peruvian drummer and percussionist Hector Morales, in collaboration with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Hector Morales has combined live international performance for the past 15 years with his work as a teaching artist. He is the author of The Afro-Peruvian Percussion Ensemble: From The Cajon To The Drum Set. He is the recipient of a grant from NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Culture) and sponsorship from the Peruvian Government to promote Afro-Peruvian music within universities in the US. Morales currently leads an All-Star group called The Afro-Peruvian Ensemble which is comprised of master musicians of Afro-Peruvian music currently living in the US. He also performs with other influential ensembles of the Afro-Peruvian Jazz scene in NYC including Yuri Juarez Afroperuano Group and Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet. Morales has performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors (US), Smithsonian Folk Festival (US), The National Museum of Peru (Peru), the Society of Musicians and Composers of Chile (Chile), Festival du Monde Arabe de Montreal (Canada) and the Jerusalem Music Festival (Israel-Palestine).

Mark Morris has been hailed as the “most successful and influential choreographer alive and indisputably the most musical” (The New York Times). Since founding Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980, Morris has created close to 150 works for the company, many of which are widely considered masterpieces. Morris has established himself as someone who “easily ranks among the top five living American choreographers… and has already carved a major place for himself in the history of modern dance” (The Denver Post). The MMDG will present an entire evening of dance. Program to be announced. ABOUT THE COMPANY The mission of the Mark Morris Dance Group is to develop, promote, and sustain dance, music, and opera productions by Mark Morris and to serve as a cultural resource to engage and enrich the community. Founded in New York in 1980, the internationally-renowned Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) has been called “the preeminent modern dance organization of our time” (Yo- Yo Ma). After spending three years residing in Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as Belgium’s national dance company, MMDG returned to the United States in 1991. MMDG has received “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity” (Bloomberg News). The Dance Group is distinguished as the only modern dance company with a commitment to live music at every performance, founding the MMDG Music Ensemble in 1996. In addition to the ensemble, MMDG regularly collaborates with eminent musicians across many genres.

Leo Kottke is arguably one of the most important and influential acoustic steel-string fingerstyle guitarists of the 20th century. Highly innovative, Kottke is known for his compelling original compositions as well as his arrangements of cover songs, like the captivating medley of “Mockingbird Hill” — a hit for both Patti Page and Les Paul & Mary Ford — and Duane Allman’s “Little Martha,” which he performed on NPR. During his career, Kottke has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, from Chet Atkins to Procul Harum to the Violent Femmes, and most notably Phish bassist Mike Gordon. Kottke has recorded an extensive catalog that has inspired countless guitarists including such fingerstyle innovators as the late, great Michael Hedges, Preston Reed, Peppino D’Agostino and Don Ross. His debut LP, 6 & 12 String Guitar, has been reissued on CD three times since its 1969 release. Kottke has been awarded two GRAMMY award nominations; a Doctorate in Music Performance by the Peck School of Music at the U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Certificate of Significant Achievement in Not Playing the Trombone from the U of Texas at Brownsville with Texas Southmost College.

Featuring Music from Copland House: Jorell Williams, baritone Suliman Tekalli, violin Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello Michael Boriskin, piano PROGRAM Tom Cipullo: I Hear America Singing Margaret Bonds: I, Too, Sing America Harry T. Burleigh: From the Southland Shawn Okpebholo: Two Black Churches, and folk song arrangements Tania Leon: Elegia a Paul Robeson Dorothy Rudd Moore: Weary Blues William Grant Still: Suite for Violin and Piano plus songs by Kurt Weill, Richard Rodgers, Margaret Bonds, and others Ticket holders are invited to a post-performance ‘OFFBEAT/ONSTAGE’ talk with the artists. The beloved and formidable Maya Angelou once wrote a lyric for composer Richard Danielpour, in which her fearless speaker exclaimed “I’ve got a magic charm / That I keep up my sleeve,” from a song called Life Doesn’t Frighten Me. The words proudly point to the power and resilience of the human spirit – which this exhilarating concert salutes on this important but long-overlooked day in American history. This wide-ranging program reaches back into the late-19th-century parlor-style, folk-based music of the pioneer Harry Burleigh (one of the greatest champions of Black spirituals) and the vibrant music, literary, and art worlds of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s through to one of the 20th-century’s most prominent African-American composers, William Grant Still, and down to such present-day musical leaders as Tania Leon and Shawn Okpebholo.

Express Newark's Community Media Center, in partnership with The Newark Museum of Art and the City of Newark, presents: Why Is We Americans?(2020). Directed by Udi Aloni and Ayana Stafford-Morris. (102 min). Not rated. Join us for a special screening and panel discussion. Why Is We Americans? is an in-depth, cinematic exploration of Newark’s legendary Baraka family. As we connect with the iconoclastic poet Amiri Baraka, his wife, Amina, and their son, Ras, a portrait of a city emerges with an inspiring call to arms in the fight for class and racial justice. Introduction by Junius Williams, city historian Featured panelists: Udi Aloni, filmmaker Ayana Stafford-Morris, filmmaker Amina Baraka, poet and activist Moderator: Dr. Lacey P. Hunter, Instructor at Rutgers University, Newark, African American and African Studies Department

An evening of music from “The Great American Songbook,” a collection of timeless tunes of jazz standards, show tunes, older popular songs, and gems from Tin Pan Alley. This tight combo is comprised of Jan Findlay on vocals, Bob Himmelberger on piano, John Zweig on guitar, and Rick Crane on bass.

“Bill Frisell, …is probably the most important and innovative exponent of jazz guitar in his generation.” The Atlantic The Bill Frisell Trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston joins a rich legacy of three-member groups: the trios of Nat Cole, Hank Jones, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and many others. It’s a heritage all but defined by the tensions between tradition and individuality, continuity and change, that have always informed jazz and spark every performance by the Frisell Trio. “All three of these musicians have a deep sense of structure along with their exploratory approach to making music, so they can elaborate but never move too far away from what they need to do to serve the song. This trio is a sterling example of balancing that architectural sensibility with the spirit of spontaneity at the same time,” says Lee Townsend, producer of the Trio’s new recording Valentine. Frisell, whose eternally boyish appearance and folksy way of talking belie a probing intellect, is attuned to the mysterious but scientifically grounded strength of the combination of three improvising musicians. The trio configuration is, after all, a musical permutation of the “power of three” central to every field from mythology and religion to mathematics and physics since Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades made up the triumvirate of Greek Gods. As with every triangle, the Bill Frisell Trio draws its strength from having three separate sides (the musicians, each with his own sensibility) connected by three vertices (the harmony, melodies, and tempi of the material). Frisell, as the leader and chief composer, established the framework of meticulous untidiness and open-eared generosity, playing with economical wisdom and unforced daring. Thomas Morgan plays in and around Frisell’s guitar lines, supporting them and building from them in counterpoint that sounds both wholly organic and full of surprise. And Rudy Royston brings a third layer of feeling to the group while holding everything together. “The music is about everyone trusting each other to the point where everybody’s in the state of mind where you don’t know what’s going to happen next, and you feel safe enough to try anything. It’s … the trust that makes risks possible,” says Frisell. The result is a vivid demonstration of the capacity of masters like Frisell, in the manner of Ellington, to push themselves, their collaborators, and their audiences to unexpected heights through the ever-restless force of their creativity. After more than two years playing jazz clubs and concert halls across the United States and throughout Europe performing a repertoire they varied every night, the Bill Frisell Trio has gelled as a group dedicated to fluidity and spontaneity.

To most of us, the adventures of trailblazing trumpeter, vocalist and songwriter Bria Skonberg are borderline unbelievable. “I play jazz because it’s the closest I can get to flying.…spreading joy, relating the human experience, and putting good into the world to counteract the negative. I want to make music that makes people feel, and think.”– Bria Skonberg Described as “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” (Wall Street Journal) she recently sang the music of Aretha Franklin alongside Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child, played with U2 at the Apollo, sat in with the Dave Matthews band, was a featured guest with Jon Batiste and performed the Star Spangled Banner at Madison Square Garden for a NY Rangers game. A bandleader since her teens, Bria has performed festivals and stages the world over, including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, and over a hundred more. In 2016 Bria released her debut LP on Sony Masterworks which won a Canadian JUNO award and made the Top 5 on Billboard jazz charts; her music has over 10 million streams on Spotify. A 6x Downbeat Rising Star, further accolades include the Jazz at Lincoln Center Swing Award, Best Vocal and Best Trumpet from Hot House Jazz Magazine and Outstanding Jazz Artist at the Bistro Awards. The “shining hope of hot jazz” (NY Times) has been at the forefront of a revival of classic American music as both a performer and educator, programming concerts and workshops for students of all ages. She has been on faculty at the Teagarden Jazz Camp (2008-present) and Centrum Jazz Camp, performs outreach on behalf of Jazz at Lincoln Center, is currently developing educational activities for the Louis Armstrong House Museum and co-directs the New York Hot Jazz Camp she co-founded in 2015. In 2018 Lincoln Center sought out her leadership for a tribute to the first integrated all female big band, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, which launched her acclaimed group Sisterhood of Swing. In 2019 she was a featured member of Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour for 26 dates alongside Cecile McLorin Salvant, Christian Sands, Melissa Aldana and Jamison Ross. Bria is a member of the Town Hall Ensemble, an all star cast directed by Steven Bernstein that celebrates the cultural and musical history of New York city. She tours constantly bringing her own signature sound of fiery trumpet playing and smoky vocals together with storytelling and adventurous concoctions of classic and new.

World-renowned guitarist and four-time GRAMMY nominee Stanley Jordan returns to the Emelin to channel the late, great Jimi Hendrix in his show called “Stanley Jordan Plays Jimi.” This is a tribute show, but it’s not pure imitation. Instead Stanley builds on Jimi’s legacy in a myriad of creative way. As Stanley explains it, “This is my fantasy Jimi Hendrix concert if Jimi were still alive and playing today. By re-imagining his music and channeling his persona I try to bring that fantasy to life.” It may be surprising that a rock legend like Hendrix would get so much love from a jazz legend like Jordan. Stanley’s 1985 album Magic Touch was #1 on Billboard’s jazz chart for 51 weeks, and Stanley has shared the stage or recorded with jazz artists such as Benny Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Billy Cobham. But again, hearing it from Stanley, “I actually played rock and blues before I played jazz. In fact, Jimi’s constant searching for new sounds inspired me to move toward jazz in the first place.” It may also be surprising that Stanley Jordan would take on a project like this. After all, Stanley is a well-known guitarist with a signature style, has four GRAMMY nominations, a cameo in a Blake Edwards film Blind Date), and a host of TV appearances over a long career including “Jimmy Fallon,” “David Letterman,” “Jay Leno” and “Johnny Carson” to name a few. Stanley explains he took on a project like this because, “I feel a strong connection to Jimi Hendrix because he was the first guitarist I emulated as a child. Out of love for Jimi and his music I feel a strong desire to try to keep his legacy alive.” In recent years, Stanley has performed with many artists in the rock and jam-band worlds, including the Dave Matthews Band, Umphrey’s McGee, Moe. and more. Stanley says, “Returning to my rock roots has been an absolute joy artistically, and with this project, I’m taking that to a new level.”