(All photos by Rebecca Carballo)
More than 100 people attended the 4th annual Jazz in the Hood event in its new location in Bronzeville, on 4th Street between North Avenue and Garfield Avenue.
In previous years it was held at 15th and Center Street. Melissa Goins, who organized the event, said it was fitting that the new location for the music and art festival is in the Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District.
Goins is president of the Maures Development Group, which will receive federal tax credits to develop a four-story, 41-unit building expected to house the new America’s Black Holocaust Museum. The museum has been closed since 2008 and has been operating as an online virtual museum.
Jazz in the Hood attendees enjoyed food trucks, art projects and four bands: Evan Christian, Sista Strings, Foreign Goods and the Kevin Hayden Band.
The event also raised awareness about the importance of bone marrow donations and provided an opportunity for people to sign up to be donors. Mickey Wilson, whose daughter Tia received a bone marrow transplant, implored the audience to sign up for the donor registry. “I ask you and I beg you to be a donor for blood and marrow. This is the living proof right here. Donors have saved my daughter’s life,” Wilson said.
Jazz in the Hood was part of the 2016 #BronzevilleSummer series. Upcoming events include the 19th Annual Garfield Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Arts Festival on July 16 and the 4th Annual Bronzeville Week from Aug. 6 to Aug. 13.
Goins thanked people for attending and then took a more somber tone when she referenced two black men killed by police in Louisiana and Minnesota last week, as well as the murder of five Dallas police officers at a demonstration protesting deaths of black people at the hands of police.
“I thank you for letting Jazz in the Hood be a display of beauty and love,” Goins said. “This has been a hard week for our country.”
Will it be a jazz in the hood this year 2018 if so when…