38 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 4, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL)
creating cultural equity for Southeast Queens
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning
(JCAL), a 47-year-old multidisciplinary
arts center based in the diverse community
of Southeast Queens, proudly announces
the inaugural Jamaica Downtown Jazz
Festival, a fl agship music festival for
Downtown Jamaica, Queens – the “home
of jazz.”
It’s the latest program off ered by southeast
Queens’ leading hub of culture and
the arts, enjoyed by people from across
the “World’s Borough” and beyond.
Th e Jamaica Downtown Jazz Festival
aims to celebrate the rich jazz heritage
rooted in Southeast Queens and promotes
generations of talents who hail
from diverse cultures residing in this
community today.
Th is weekend-long inaugural festival
will pay homage to the Southeast
Queens native Milford Graves, a free
jazz pioneer, who still lives and works in
his home located 10 minutes away from
Jamaica Avenue. Graves is an American
jazz drummer and percussionist, most
noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions
in the 1960s with Paul Bley
and the New York Art Quartet alongside
John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, and Reggie
Workman.
Aft er having recognitions throughout
the world, Graves is delighted to be recognized
by his own community. He believes
that “more honors of local people, by local
people, help to lift the spirit of a neighborhood.”
Beyond Milford Graves, the festival
will feature creative forces like Jason
Moran, Tyshawn Sorey, Don Byron, Sumi
Tonooka, Pheeroan akLaff , and many
more emerging musicians from diverse
cultural backgrounds.
Th e 3-days music marathon will take
place in venues along Jamaica Avenue,
particularly between the Jamaica Arts
Center and Jamaica Performing Arts
Center, a downtown cultural corridor
envisioned by Cathy Hung, JCAL’s
Executive Director since March 2014.
“Th e festival is created to be the cultural
destination for Southeast Queens by connecting
the rich jazz heritage to vibrant
economic activities in downtown Jamaica
Avenue.” Hung said.
Th e Jamaica Avenue Cultural Corridor
is a creative place-making initiative that
combines collaborative eff orts of residents,
artists, community organizations,
colleges and businesses to support a
vibrant, livable neighborhood along the
Jamaica Avenue, made stronger through
an active local creative economy.
Dubbed as the “Th e Gateway of the
World,” this festival aims to encourage
arts-based economic development in
Southeast Queens. Hung envisions the
Cultural Corridor to advance a vision that
draws upon the local cultural assets and
ethnic cultures of the Corridor’s residents.
It includes government agencies, industry,
residential, commercial businesses, educational
institutions and a main library as
well as a number of artists, designers, artisans,
arts organizations and more.
Since her assumed the role of Executive
Director, Hung quickly overhauled JCAL’s
artistic direction and streamlined its
organizational structure. Her strength
in fi nancial management and innovative
high-profi le program approach has
helped re-imaging JCAL’s identity and
swift ly built up JCAL’s reputation as a
leading cultural presenters and education
partners in New York City cultural
landscape.
A National Model for
Cultural Equity
Centrally situated on the crossroads
between JFK and LaGuardia; Queens and
Long Island; and, New York City and the
World, “JCAL is fi rmly positioned for the
future and is committed to be the creative
force and incubator for local, national,
and international artists. JCAL is building
a national model for building a community
based equitable environment for the
growing diverse society in United States
today.” Hung said.
Since its founding in 1972, JCAL has
provided programs and services to some
52,000 members of the community each
year. As the one and only multi-disciplinary
arts center in Southeast Queens,
JCAL has nurtured a steady stream of cutting
edge artists, opened up new educational
horizons for generations of Queens
residents, and inspired thousands of children
to take an active interest in dance,
theater, music and other forms of artistic
expression, even during times of widespread
fi nancial impairment.
With the dawn of initiative for
“Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access,”
government agencies are fi nally focusing
on community building by facilitating
more equitable cultural environments and
policies. However, funding and support
are oft en reserved for larger homogenous
organizations to diversify their ranks.
Yet, Hung said, “JCAL, a community
based organization already holding
space and representing a diverse cultural
community for the past 47 years, is still
fi ghting for equitable resources to further
and fully engage and present the communities
it serves.”
She further explained, “It is not the
absence of creativity, talent, or innovative
ideas, but a lack of resources that inhibits
the community to ensure the equitable
investment into artists and cultural
Scenes from the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning Children’s Festival
City Councilman I. Daneek Miller, Congressman Gregory Meeks, Michelle Stoddart and Patrick
Jenkins, long-time supporters of JCAL.
/WWW.QNS.COM
