Free Arts NYC Pop-Up Exhibition

A grouping of Jazz Movement Study works created and displayed as part of a pop-up exhibition to benefit Free Arts NYC, curated by Uprise Art. The works included in the show are graphic transcriptions of John Coltrane’s album Live at Birdland, partially recorded on October 8, 1963, just miles away from the exhibition location in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The album—particularly the track entitled Alabama—is considered to be one of Coltrane’s most well rounded live recordings. Alabama was also an overtly political statement, written in response to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963—an attack by white supremacists in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four young girls. These glyph-like gestures are meant to represent the album as a whole, capturing Coltrane’s tumbling arpeggios, octave jumps, and other frantic riffs in an attempt to create order, understanding, empathy, and resolution out of both Coltrane’s auditory chaos and the cultural chaos of racial tensions we still experience in America today. 

These artworks are now available through Uprise Art with a portion of the proceeds going to Free Arts NYC in support of their efforts in empowering underserved youth through art and mentoring programs to develop their creativity, confidence, and skills to succeed.