Musical Intersections – An Exploration of the Black/Jewish Experience

Featuring live musical performance, storytelling, and provocative discussion, this one-of-a-kind show has been curated to share the Black and Jewish origins of American music and culture. From the creation of the music itself to the dawning of the modern music business, this program examines the important, prolific, and complicated relationship between these two minorities who, together, made American music “American.”

About the talent:

Acclaimed vocalist, songwriter, and band leader Dara Starr Tucker bonds her performing artist identity with her social influencer identity, delivering a compelling commentary on race, cultural equity, music, and film on her new self-titled record, which showcases lively, thought-provoking originals alongside inspired arrangements of songs by Billie Eilish, Bill Withers, John Denver, Hoagy Carmichael, and Kurt Weill. Her original take and original music have appeared on HBO, FX, OWN Network, Revolt! TV, and Ebony/Jet: “My desire is that people would sense a unity between the content I share online, and the music I make on the stage — it all comes from the same place.”

Joe Alterman is an arts leader, scholar, journalist and world-renowned jazz pianist. He is the Executive Director of Neranenah, an Atlanta-based Concert & Culture series that celebrates Jewish contributions to music and the arts. As a pianist, he is hailed by greats; Ramsey Lewis describes his music as “happy music with tasty meat on the bones,” Les McCann states “Joe’s on a ‘blow your mind’ level,” and Dick Cavett has referred to Alterman as “one fine, first-class entertainer.” As a journalist, Alterman has written liner notes to three Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra w/Wynton Marsalis albums. Legendary journalist Nat Hentoff called one of Alterman’s columns on jazz “one of the very best pieces on the essence of jazz, the spirit of jazz, that I’ve ever read, and I’m not exaggerating.”