Previous events

Join me at the junction of MLK Drive and Broad Street, where all the great folks meet, for two hours of folk and blues favorites. I'm in the Eastern Carolina arts town this week--Glad to meet you all!

JoVia Armstrong and Stephan Moore created this soundscape out of interviews and vocalizations of people from Chicago's Austin community reflecting on their experiences in the Corona pandemic. . The original Barrelhouse Bonni song "Nonessential business" boils up out of the relaxing drone from time to time.

We'll talk about how we can all write our own blues tune, and how blues developed in Chicago during the Great Migration--especially on the West Side, in the North Lawndale neighborhood where Urban Art Retreat is located. How can we bring back this magnificent music today?