Anderson@Large

Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places

Black sacred places matter. From Bishop Richard Allen preaching at Mother Bethel, Denmark Vesey planning a slave rebellion at Mother Emanuel, and Minister Malcolm X teaching at Muhammad’s Temple of Islam No. 12, Black sacred places have been the heart and soul of the African American community.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., an advisor to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, observed: “No pillar of the African American community has been more central to its history, identity, and social justice vision than the ‘Black Church.’”

Preserving Black Churches is a project of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund which is led by National Trust for Historic Preservation Senior Vice President Brent Leggs. In an interview with Robin Givhan of the Washington Post, Leggs said:

It’s critically important that we preserve the physical evidence of our past, that we preserve the historic buildings that are imbued with legacy and memory, that we preserve the profound stories that are embodied in the walls, landscapes, and cemeteries stewarded by African American churches.

Rooted in the Black experience, jazz both has been a sanctuary and found sanctuary in the church. Now a jazz standard, Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” is a celebration of the African American religious tradition.

The Ku Klux Klan’s bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church which killed four Black children moved John Coltrane, the grandson of a prominent African Methodist Episcopal minister, to compose “Alabama.”

Partners for Sacred Places and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia recently launched the Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places (PFBSP). The three-year project will expand public access to purpose-built religious properties of architectural, historical or cultural significance, regardless of denomination, that are operated and owned by an active community of faith. PFBSP will provide planning and programming grants, as well as capital grants to support Black congregations’ efforts to maintain their properties.

Rev. Betsy Ivey, director of PFBSP, said:

The public’s response to the murder of George Floyd in June 2020 gave focus to the unanswered needs of our city’s Black communities. Religious properties have space that can be developed to respond to these needs in creative and innovative ways after worship. The houses of worship that are selected to participate in this grant program will provide welcoming and affirming space to the public that will benefit all of our communities.

PFBSP will provide up to $10,000 in planning grants and up to $250,000 in 1:2 matching grants ($2 granted for each $1 raised) for the planning and execution of projects that expand equitable access to Black-led historic sacred places. Eligibility guidelines are available here. The application deadline is January 31, 2024.

Register here for the November 17 info session on completing the application. If you have any questions, contact PFBSP Director Betsy Ivey by email or by phone at (215) 567-3234 x29.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

Drummer and bandleader Max Roach’s music is at the intersection of art, activism and resistance. His groundbreaking “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite” was influenced by the then-emerging Civil Rights Movement.

This week, American Masters will premiere Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes.

The documentary explores the life of the pioneering drummer and cultural activist who spoke truth to power. The film traces Roach’s epic musical journey from bebop to hip-hop. It features Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln; Philadelphians Jimmy Heath, Sonia Sanchez and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson; and music legends Harry Belafonte, Abdullah Ibrahim, Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins and Randy Weston.

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzespremieres Friday, October 6 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS App.

National Voter Registration Day 2023

In the coming months, you will be told the 2024 Election is the most consequential election since, well, the last presidential election. The hype notwithstanding, the right to vote is the right that secures all other rights. If voting didn’t matter, conservatives would not try to block access to the ballot box.

National Voter Registration Day, the country’s largest single-day voter registration drive, is September 19, 2023. Since 2012, more than five million Americans have been registered to vote on this civic holiday.

Your vote matters. You can register to vote here. If you are already registered, check your status to make sure you are #VoteReady. And on Election Day, be careful how you vote.

March on Washington: 60 Years Later

Thousands gathered in the nation’s capitol to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organizers said the march was “not a commemoration, but a continuation” of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The march was convened by Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network and Martin Luther King III, board chairman of the Drum Major Institute. Co-Chairs include the NAACP, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and the National Urban League.

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has on display the original three-page “I Have a Dream” speech that Dr. King delivered on August 28, 1963. NMAAHC Director Kevin Young said:

The words of all its speakers resonate six decades later, and we serve as witnesses to the bravery and dedication of its organizers. To be able to show visitors the copy of the “I Have a Dream” speech King read and improvised from while at the podium is an honor and privilege.

Dr. King’s speech will be on display until September 18, 2023 in NMAAHC’s Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation 1876–1968 Gallery.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told Black people:

We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Less than 24 hours later, the “King of Love” was assassinated as he stood on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Women in Jazz Month

March is Women in Jazz Month, a time to celebrate the contributions of women to jazz.

As a lifelong activist, I want to celebrate the role that women in jazz played in paving the way for the Civil Rights Movement. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit,” written by Abel Meeropol, is the first protest song.

Ethel Waters’ “Supper Time” is not well-known. Written by Irving Berlin especially for Waters, the song is about a wife’s grief over the lynching of her husband.

For Lady Day and Ethel Waters, Black Lives always mattered.

Black History Month 2023

First started as “Negro History Week” by Carter G. Woodson in February 1926, African American History Month is a celebration of all things Black. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History chose Black Resistance for this year’s theme:

African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms, and police killings since our arrival upon these shores. These efforts have been to advocate for a dignified self-determined life in a just democratic society in the United States and beyond the United States political jurisdiction. The 1950s and 1970s in the United States were defined by actions such as sit-ins, boycotts, walk outs, strikes by Black people and white allies in the fight for justice against discrimination in all sectors of society from employment to education to housing. Black people have had to consistently push the United States to live up to its ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all. Systematic oppression has sought to negate much of the dreams of our griots, like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and our freedom fighters, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Septima Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer fought to realize.

Billie Holiday denounced the terrorism of lynching in “Strange Fruit,” the first protest song. Bassist Charles Mingus observed that Lady Day resisted racial oppression before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From Louis Armstrong to Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, jazz is the music of Black Resistance.

Poet Langston Hughes said jazz transformed Black Resistance into an art form:

But jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America; the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.

Jazz is the sound of struggle.