Saturday, June 13 @ 3:00 pm
Richard Rogers Amphitheater @ Marcus Garvey Park - 6316 Mt. Morris Park W
NJMH’s Juneteenth Black Music and Dance Celebration is an outdoor celebration rooted in community, movement, and sounds from the Black Diaspora. Please join us at Richard Rogers Amphitheater at Marcus Garvey Park (6316 Mt. Morris Park W) from 3-6:30pm on Saturday, June 13th for this special, FREE live celebration of Black music and culture.
This year’s program brings together a dynamic lineup of artists spanning gospel, jazz fusion, hip-hop, and dance. The evening features the relaunch of the historic gospel quartet Southern Sons of South Carolina, a performance by Nabate Isles and En Motion’s Electric Miles Tribute Project, and a closing set by acclaimed singer, songwriter, and rapper Mumu Fresh.
The featured dance group this year is Kinen & Friends: The Paved Way Movement who represents the continuum of Black Street Dance movement principles, techniques, and styles.
Schedule:
3:00 – Nabate Isles and En Motion – Electric Miles Tribute Project
4: 00 – Southern Sons of South Carolina
5:00 – Mumu Fresh
The Juneteenth Black Music and Dance Celebration is made possible with support from The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, NYC Parks, Historic Harlem Parks, Harlem Community Development Corporation. Nabaté Isles and En Motion are presented through a grant from Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz, supported by the Doris Duke Foundation.
THE ARTISTS:
Mumu Fresh, also known as Maimouna Youssef, is a GRAMMY-nominated, Indigenous Music Award–winning artist and U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassador. She has served as governor of the Washington, DC chapter of the Recording Academy and is an ambassador for the Black Music Collective.
Nabaté Isles is a Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, producer, and educator born and raised in New York City. Known for his expansive musical vision, Isles moves fluidly across jazz, hip-hop, soul, orchestral music, and contemporary creative improvisation. Over the course of his career, he has performed, toured, and recorded with an extraordinary range of artists including Sting, Mos Def, Christian McBride, Jill Scott, Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, Gregory Porter, Angélique Kidjo, and Chuck D.
His 2023 album En Motion, released on Ropeadope Records, features a stellar lineup of collaborators and guest appearances by artists including Mumu Fresh and Chuck D. His debut album, Eclectic Excursions, earned critical acclaim and remained in the JazzWeek Top 50 for six weeks.
As a young musician, Isles performed at the Louis Armstrong Archives preview event alongside legendary trumpeters including Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis. He earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and New York University, and has composed music for film, theater, and concert performance. Isles was also featured on four Grammy-winning recordings with the Christian McBride Big Band.
The Southern Sons of South Carolina were founded in Newark, New Jersey in 1974 by Frederick “Freddie” Hubbard, The Southern Sons grew from the Gospel Quartet tradition carried north by Black families migrating from the American South. Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, Hubbard brought together a group of experienced quartet singers deeply rooted in both Southern church traditions and Newark’s gospel community.
The original members included Frederick Hubbard, Ernest Brown Jr., Willie Brown, James Bryant, and Harold Brown. Performing throughout New Jersey and the Eastern Seaboard, the group became known for its powerful harmonies, spirited performances, and dedication to traditional gospel quartet music.
Years later, the group welcomed a young Eban Brown, who joined alongside his father Harold Brown, contributing bass guitar, lead guitar and vocals. In the early 1980s, The Southern Sons recorded their only record at Adams Recording Studio in Newark, featuring their signature arrangement of the hymn “The Best of Your Service,” traditionally sung at the close of performances.
Today, Reverend Willie Brown serves as pastor of First Love Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, while Eban Brown has carried forward the group’s musical legacy through a lifelong career performing across a wide range of musical genres around the world.
Choreographer, educator, and curator Sekou McMiller (he/him), at the forefront of a new movement in the dance world, his melange of Afro Latin Jazz, Afro-Caribbean (Salsa/Mambo, Cha-cha-cha, Rumba, Yoruba) urban dance, modern, jazz, and contemporary styles, augmented by his explosive energy on and off stage, has earned Sekou broad recognition world-wide. Sekou has performed and choreographed for top latin artists including Gilberto Santa Rosa, Willie Colon, Cheo Feliciano, Johnny Pacheco, Tito Rojas, Tito Nieves, PitBull, and the pop icon Madonna. In addition to his recent Residency at Jacob’s Pillow, McMiller is a fellowship recipient with The Alvin Ailey Foundation’s New Directions Choreography Lab and the City University of New York (CUNY) Dance Initiative. Sekou has received certificates of training from both the prestigious Danza Contemporanea de Cuba in Havana, Cuba and École des Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal.
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.