Summary of my presentation entitled The Other Side of Art and Music.

It was an honor to be one of many presenters at the 50th Greater Metropolitan New York Social Studies Conference. The conference offered many enlightening and thought-provoking workshops. Doris Kearns Goodwin was the recipient of the Hubert Humphrey Humanitarian Award.

Sharing with educators my experience visiting John Coltrane’s Huntington, Long Island home.

I had a wonderful uplifting day sharing my project with New York City educators. There was a blizzard on the way, but many educators found their way to the UFT building at 52 Broadway to attend this wonderful conference.  I had the opportunity to present my journey. I shared what I have learned from the folks at  Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts,  the Jazz Foundation of  America, the Metropolitan Museum of Art  and Harvard’s Project Zero. The focus of the discussion highlighted jazz as it unfolded in American history. We discussed the struggle for civil rights, the pluralistic character of American culture, arts and culture as a reflection of historical events, jazz as a metaphor for American identity, the effect of technology on American culture, and arts and music as a means of self-expression.

I want to send out a special thank you to Rozella Kirschgaessner, ATSS/UFT President/Chairperson for appreciating the significance of  this work.