A highly anticipated collaboration with The Free Black Woman’s Library in Brooklyn, this event will be a hybrid of performance and lecture. Preceding the discussion, guests are welcome to join journaling stations where they can reflect on lyrics written by these trailblazers. Join us as we honor the foremothers of the music and highlight current artist walking in their foot steps.
This program is made possible with funding from the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship
About Liany Mateo
Liany Mateo has traveled across the globe performing, touring, and teaching music. Influenced by a mix of hard-hitting straight-ahead swing, Free Avant Garde, and music with deep pocket groove.
Mateo is the bassist for Arturo O’Farrill’s “Legacies” album recorded on Blue Note records. Mateo was also featured on the PBS television show “NEXT at the Kennedy Center”, as a featured artist introduced as Christian McBride’s Protege.
She has performed with musicians such as Regina Carter, Geoffrey Keezer, Matthew Whitaker, Carl Allen, Steve Wilson, Fay Victor, and Brandee Younger. She holds a Jazz degree from the esteemed Michigan State University (2020) and a Master’s degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute(2021). In 2023 she won the esteemed “Next Jazz Legacy” Award and grant through New Music USA, led by Terri Lyne Carrington. You can find her playing across NYC’s most notable venues.
About the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships
Since its founding, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has provided young artists with opportunities to perform as well as curate concerts and events. NJMH Artistic Director Christian McBride started curating performances and presentations at the Museum in 2006, and Artistic Director Jon Batiste began in 2010 while a student at Juilliard. The excitement and energy those events brought to our community inform our current programming and creative vision. As Christian and Jon became globally recognized jazz ambassadors, the Museum continued to provide emerging artists with career-enhancing opportunities to curate events at the Museum. In 2022, we formalized this initiative as the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships, with generous funding from the New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship Program. Our third cohort of Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellows includes bassist Liany Mateo and pianist Luther Allison.
Liany and Luther will be performing and curating a variety of events at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem throughout 2024.
The Free Black Women’s Library; 226 Marcus Garvey Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11221
We are your go-to venue for off-site meetings, receptions, film screenings, workshops, networking events, socials and more. Located in the heart of Central Harlem’s thriving culinary and entertainment district, The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is the perfect place to hold your next gathering.