Cab Calloway as the Father of Hip Hop
This is the moment when I learned of the role of place in my grandfather's legacy. A true moment of discovery.
Details: 8 minutes
Pamela Woolford is an interdisciplinary artist and keynote speaker, intertwining her work as a writer, filmmaker, performer, and immersive-media director to create new forms of narrative work about Black women and girls and others whose joy, imagination, and inner life are under-explored in American media and popular art. She is the recipient of six Maryland State Arts Council Awards, five film-festival awards internationally, a Changemaker Challenge Award from United Way of Central Maryland and Horizon Foundation, and a Baker Artist Award in interdisciplinary arts.\
Gregory Thompkins performs and resides in Baltimore, Maryland. He is an early jazz and commercial music graduate of Towson University, receiving his Bachelor of Science in 1989. In his 30-plus year music career, he has performed with All Mighty Senators, Lafayette Gilchrist, David Murray, George Garzone, Dave Ballou, Michael Formanek, and many others.
Peter is an exceptionally rare kind of artist—a true polymath—whose work seamlessly blends music, visual art, cultural heritage, history, and cutting-edge digital media. Building on the legacy of his grandfather, the legendary entertainer Cab Calloway, and great-grandfather Andrew Reid, a prominent Baltimore activist in the post–Civil War era, Peter brings forward a tradition of social justice, community engagement, and creative innovation.
Praised for her “natural expressiveness” (Montpelier Times Argus), Jessica Powell Eig has crafted a dynamic and varied career performing on double bass, violone, and viola da gamba. She is the principal violone of the Washington Bach Consort and a core member of the New Orchestra of Washington. She appears regularly with American Bach Soloists, Washington Concert Opera, Cathedral Choral Society, and many others. In 2018 she joined the faculty of Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East. She is a regular guest lecturer in double bass pedagogy at the University of Maryland.
Mike Rose is a professional magician who logs in over 200 shows a year. A perennial favorite at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, Mike is both a performer and the owner of the magic shop there. Approximately 20 years ago Mike developed an interest in magic history while reading about a magician from the 1940s named Joe Karson. Mike’s curiosity about Karson led to his first book Joe Karson – Beyond Zombie. Mike received the “Library Special Award” from the Society of American Magicians for his work on Karson.