Many artist resources are circulating the internet right now. Here are a few comprehensive and well organized databases collecting most of the information out there. 

Emergency Grants for Artists
Compiled by NYFA
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Emergency Funding Database
Compiled by Music Works International

New Music USA Solidarity Fund
$500 emergency assistance grants are available; applications begin 12pm ET on March 31

International Opportunities
Compiled by Composers Forum

Jazz Near You
Complimentary advertisements for live streaming events uploaded to their event calendar

COVID-19 Artist Resources
Compiled by Tanya Kalmanovitch

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer shared the following list of useful general resources:

New York evictions are suspended through June 20
For free food for children and families
FOOD HUB
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For reliable health information
NYC Department of Health
New York State Dept of Health
The Centers for Disease Control

​This survey is designed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on our Creative Community so that the Funding Community will understand how much this sector needs support. Please fill out and share!

​The Sun Ra Arkestra and William Parker’s Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield
 
March 4, 2020 7pm, at The Town Hall
123 West 43rd Street, NYC
                                                             
TICKETS: ticketmaster.com
                                   
Arts for Art celebrates 25 years of programming with Sounds of Justice, a night of intergenerational FreeJazz/AfroFuturism, on March 4th at NYC’s historic The Town Hall. Both the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen and William Parker’s Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield are steeped in a commitment to the ideals of music and art as agents of social change, exemplifying the very ethos of Arts for Art. This boundary-breaking blend of FreeJazz, funk, R&B, and soul aesthetics looks both back and into the future, bridging time and space to share warnings, hope, and inspiration. 

Under the leadership of Marshall Allen, the Arkestra carries the Sun Ra experience of sound, dance, song, light, and color into the present. Having joined the Arkestra in the 1950s, Allen is uniquely positioned to move this performance tradition forward, further cementing Sun Ra and the Arkestra’s twinned legacies as both progenitors and practitioners of the genre now called AfroFuturism. The Town Hall performance will include video art and painting by NYC artist William Mazza to create a synesthetic sight/sound experience of Sun Ra and his mind-bending view of the universe.

William Parker’s highly acclaimed, intensely free Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield builds upon both the text and music of the politically engaged and activist singer-songwriter. This latest version of Parker’s ongoing project includes an expanded band with vocalist Leena Conquest joined by Thomas Sayers Ellis performing Amiri Baraka’s and his own poetry. Filmmaker Moon Lasso’a impressionistic video portrayal of the texts and sounds of Curtis Mayfield and William Parker will complete the experience.
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Arts for Art, presenter of the internationally renowned Vision Festival, is focused on developing strategies for the future as it enters its 25th year: how to better the world in which we live, and how to inspire, grow, and build a diverse community of uncompromising artists and audiences. 

Whit Dickey Biography

Whit Dickey grew up in Bennington, VT, where he was introduced to the music of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald through his father’s record collection.  He was also exposed to the music of The Doors and Jimi Hendrix, and was captivated by the drumming of Mitch Mitchell and Jack deJohnette. Seeing Sam Rivers perform with drummer Freddie Waits while studying at UMass in 1974 opened his mind to the possibilities of creative improvisation.  Le Roi Jones’ compilation of writings on 60s jazz scene, Black Music, and the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Elvin Jones, and Sunny Murray, further pushed Dickey’s interest toward the avant-garde.  He became a regular audience member during the NYC “loft scene” of ‘76 and ‘77, and in 1978 began to seriously pursue the drums.  

Whit joined the Creative Music Studio, where he studied combinations of rhythm units – taki and gamala – invented by Don Cherry and Karl Berger, played with many visiting artists, and in Karl Berger’s free jazz ensembles.  He would move to NYC, where he continued to play with musicians from CMS, and spent time studying with Andrew Cyrille. He later attended Bennington College, where he studied and performed with professors Milford Graves and Bill Dixon.  During this time, Dickey began developing his free approach to drumming.  

After earning a Masters in Third Stream Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Whit met fellow NEC alum and pianist Matthew Shipp, who would introduce him to alto saxophonist Rob Brown. Whit and Rob were formative members of the Matthew Shipp Quartet, who along with William Parker, would release the album Points in 1990.  In 1992, the trio of Dickey, Shipp, and Parker put out the recording Circular Temple, inspired by a mutual love for the short story, “The Circular Ruins,” by Jorge Luis Borges.

Whit soon joined Matthew and William in the David S. Ware Quartet.  He recorded 5 albums and toured frequently as part of the quartet until 1996. In 1997, Whit recorded his first album as leader, the trio date Transonic with Rob Brown and bassist Chris Lightcap. He soon moved north of NYC to refocus his studies in private.  He continued to record while developing a personal style cradling syncopation and free improvisation, drawing from Billy Higgins, Milford Graves, and Elvin Jones. Dickey linked back up with Matthew Shipp and joined his trio in 2007, resulting in several critically acclaimed records.  In 2014, Whit retreated from the scene in pursuit of stillness, which lead him to embrace silence and space in his playing. Fierce Silence and Drone Dream, duo records with cornetist Kirk Knuffke, exemplify this approach. In 2019, Aum Fidelity released the 2-CD set, Peace Planet -&- Box of Light.

Whit Dickey - drums / Brandon Lopez - bass / Daniel Carter - horns

​Patricia Nicholson Parker
Founder, Artistic Director

Andrew Lamb a.k.a. The Black Lamb, plays saxophones, flutes, clarinet, oboe, and woodwind instruments from various indigenous societies. Also a composer, Lamb is known as an individual artist, with his own style and his own story. Lamb came into New York’s once heralded Loft Jazz scene and the avant-garde community in the mid seventies, and over time became an active presence in the vibrant Bedford-Stuyvesant arts world during the 90’s through 2004. He recently released the album Casbah of Love with his working trio of bassist Tom Abbs and drummer Ryan Jewell. Andrew Lamb’s Circadian Spheres Of Light, is a special ensemble of interest, a multidisciplinary outfit with works created to help heal those with Autism, Dementia, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

For this performance, Lamb welcomes heavy hitters Cooper-Moore, Hilliard Greene, and Marvin "Bugulu" Smith. 

Andrew Lamb - tenor sax, clarinet / Cooper-Moore - piano / Hilliard Greene - bass / Marvin "Bugulu" Smith- drums