Born in Detroit, MI, a crucible of jazz, Marion Hayden is one of the nation’s finest proponents of the acoustic bass. Mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, Hayden began performing jazz at the age of 15. She has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen, Regina Carter, Steve Turre, Lester Bowie, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan, Joe Williams, Lionel Hampton, Frank Morgan, Jon Hendricks, Hank Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Larry Willis, Vanessa Rubin, Sheila Jordan, Mulgrew Miller, Annie Ross and many others.   She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead- the first all woman jazz ensemble signed to Atlantic Records. She is a member of the Detroit International Jazz Festival All-Star Ambassadors touring ensemble.

Widely recognized as a standard bearer of culture and artistic history, Hayden received a 2019 Art X Grant and a Creators of Culture Grant for original musical works. She was Artistic Director for a 2018 Knight Arts Foundation Grant encouraging young women in jazz. In 2016 Hayden was honored for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship- a 1 year fellowship and grant award given an elite group of creative artists.  She was the recipient of a 2016 Jazz Hero Award.- a national award given by the Jazz Journalists Association- recognizing people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement.

Despite spending much of her life enslaved, Phillis Wheatley was the first African American and second woman (after Anne Bradstreet) to publish a book of poems.

Born around 1753 in Gambia, Africa, Wheatley was captured by slave traders and brought to America in 1761. Upon arrival, she was sold to the Wheatley family in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first name Phillis was derived from the ship that brought her to America, “the Phillis.”

The Wheatley family educated her and within sixteen months of her arrival in America she could read the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. She also studied astronomy and geography. At age fourteen, Wheatley began to write poetry, publishing her first poem in 1767. Publication of “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield” in 1770 brought her great notoriety. In 1773, with financial support from the English Countess of Huntingdon, Wheatley traveled to London with the Wheatley’s son to publish her first collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral—the first book written by a black woman in America. It included a forward, signed by John Hancock and other Boston notables—as well as a portrait of Wheatley—all designed to prove that the work was indeed written by a black woman. She was emancipated shortly thereafter.

Wheatley’s poems reflected several influences on her life, among them the well-known poets she studied, such as Alexander Pope and Thomas Gray. Pride in her African heritage was also evident. Her writing style embraced the elegy, likely from her African roots, where it was the role of girls to sing and perform funeral dirges. Religion was also a key influence, and it led Protestants in America and England to enjoy her work. Enslavers and abolitionists both read her work; the former to convince the enslaved population to convert, the latter as proof of the intellectual abilities of people of color. 

Although she supported the patriots during the American Revolution, Wheatley’s opposition to slavery heightened. She wrote several letters to ministers and others on liberty and freedom. During the peak of her writing career, she wrote a well-received poem praising the appointment of George Washington as the commander of the Continental Army. However, she believed that slavery was the issue that prevented the colonists from achieving true heroism.

In 1778, Wheatley married John Peters, a free black man from Boston with whom she had three children, though none survived. Efforts to publish a second book of poems failed. To support her family, she worked as a scrubwoman in a boardinghouse while continuing to write poetry. Wheatley died in December 1784, due to complications from childbirth. In addition to making an important contribution to American literature, Wheatley’s literary and artistic talents helped show that African Americans were equally capable, creative, intelligent human beings who benefited from an education. In part, this helped the cause of the abolition movement.

Chicago – Michals, Debra.  “Phillis Wheatley.”  National Women’s History Museum.  2015.  www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/phillis-wheatley. 

To learn even more about Phillis Wheatley follow these links:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/phillis-wheatley-beat-expectations-180979249/

https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/how-phillis-wheatley-was-recovered-through-history

Buddy Budson has been playing jazz piano around the Detroit area for the past 46 years, beginning at local clubs at the age of fifteen. In 1973, Buddy joined drummer Buddy Rich’s big band, toured England, Australia, and the United States, and recorded an album with the band. Soon after, Buddy toured with both guitarist Earl Klugh and the Motown group, The Four Tops. He has also backed well-known performers including Henry Mancini, Mel Torme, Sammy Davis, Jr., Marlena Shaw, Charles McPherson, and Steve Turre.

When the Fox Television Network debuted in the late ‘80’s Buddy composed and arranged the theme song and much of the transitional music for the sitcom, Duet. He has also done vocal and instrumental arrangements for big band and orchestra.

Buddy is married to noted Detroit vocalist, Ursula Walker, and together they perform at clubs and concerts throughout the Detroit metro area. They have also given many clinics at Detroit-area schools and the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University. Buddy is the recipient of a Metro Times Jazz Award and the Detroit Metro Area Musicians and Entertainers Association Teddy Harris, Jr. Legendary Award.

Trumpeter Dwight Adams’ musical training came later in life, not beginning until he joined his Detroit High School band during his junior year. With a great deal of natural talent and hard work he landed a gig as a member of fellow Detroiter Teddy Harris’ New Breed Bebop Society at the age of 16. Adams is now one of the brightest stars on the Detroit jazz scene. He earned a full scholarship to Kentucky State University, where he majored in music education and performance. He has since played and recorded with musicians including Marcus Belgrave, Rodney Whitaker, James Carter, Shawn Wallace and Donald Walden, and tours with Stevie Wonder. He has served as a jazz trumpet instructor at both The Ohio State University and Michigan State University and performs with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.

Rafael Leafar, 2020 Film & Music Kresge Artist Fellow, is a rare multi-instrumentalist who can combine great passion, intellectual discipline, and a spiritual fire that is evocative of great artistic creativity. He has established himself as a remarkable composer and musician not defined by any one particular genre or style. Hailing from Detroit, Rafael’s connection to music was fostered from a musical family at an early age. Since the start of Rafael’s professional music career in 2009, there has been major recording & performances with; Reggie Workman, Jeff Mills, Moodyman, Robert Hurst, Marcus Belgrave, Luis Resto, Vincent Chandler, Marion Hayden, Sterling Toles, Detroit Jazz Festival Band, Kamau Kenyatta, and Detroit Composers Collective.

Ursula Walker has been a mainstay of the Detroit music world for 54 years, beginning at the age of eleven on Detroit television and radio. Pursuing her career in her hometown while raising four children, her outstanding talents as a unique stylist of ballads, standards, and jazz gained her national recognition among her peers.

In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Ursula fielded many offers to tour nationally with many notable musicians such as Stan Kenton, the Harry James Band, Count Basie, and Tony Bennett. Over the years she has performed at countless clubs, concerts, and festivals, frequently at the Detroit International Jazz Festival. She has opened for many well-known performers, including Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, and Tania Maria.

Ursula has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, among them a Clio Award for best vocal performance of a commercial jingle; election to the Metro Times Jazz Hall of Fame; the Midwest Arts Legends of Jazz Hall of Fame Award; the MCA Outstanding Musicians Award; the Detroit Metro Area Musicians and Entertainers Association Teddy Harris, Jr. Legendary Award; and the 2007 Southern Christian Leadership Conference Aretha Franklin Award for outstanding achievement in the Performing Arts.

Henry Conerway III has become a leading presence on the modern jazz scene since moving to New York in 2015, as evidenced by his ongoing work with such global touring artists as; the iconic Freddy Cole; the stalwart Jazz at Lincoln Center trumpeter, Marcus Printup; 2015 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition Winner, Jazzmeia Horn; Grammy nominated trumpeter, Russell Gunn; and several residencies with Jazz at Lincoln Center in Doha, Qatar.

His notable performances include such esteemed venues as: The Atlanta Jazz Festival; Jacksonville Jazz Festival; Savannah Jazz Festival; National Black Arts Festival; Toronto Jazz Festival; The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; The United Trombone Summit (Indiana University) featuring Slide Hampton, Steve Turre, Curtis Fuller and Bill Watrous; Birmingham Jazz Festival; The Gulf Coast Ethnic & Heritage Festival; performed at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA in A Tribute To Ray Charles; the Mount Vernon Jazz Series in Golden, CO with jazz masters Nicholas Payton and Russell Malone; and notable NYC jazz clubs as Minton’s, Birdland, Smalls, Smoke; Jazz at Lincoln Center and its Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.

Conerway, a proud Detroit native, made extraordinary use of the many educational and cultural opportunities of that formidable city, performing as a high school student on The Detroit Jazz Festival stages and spending several years studying under the tutelage of the late, great trumpeter, Marcus Belgrave as a member of the Detroit Symphony’s Civic Jazz Orchestra. His thirst for the jazz idiom was nurtured there by his mother, a lover of music, who made sure he experienced live performances of all types; and his father, a brilliant classical violinist, who also shared a deep and abiding love for jazz music in all its incarnations.

While matriculating at Atlanta’s historic and prestigious Morehouse College (B.A. in Music Composition), Henry co-founded the group, Jaspects, which quickly became a staple in that city’s music scene and successfully sold thousands of their own recordings, while booking their own tours and forming creative collaborations with such luminaries as Maroon 5’s P.J. Morton; Grammy nominated Janelle Monáe; Tyler Perry’s Tony Hightower, and Chantae Cann; who can each be heard on Jaspects’ recordings.  Henry has also composed original works for film and performed in theatre settings including the Tony Award nominated Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, on Broadway.

The progress thus far of the movement for human rights is a reflection of the visionary and courageous individuals who are gifted with a deep understanding of the path toward liberation and who risk everything to consistently walk that path in all that they do. Dr. Gloria House is unquestionably one of those individuals.

House’s literary work has sparked imagination and action, articulating passionate and compelling ideas, and honoring the impact, sacrifices, joys, and humanity of those who have dedicated their lives to the path of freedom. House’s activism has registered people to vote, helped lift the voices of the previously unheard, and awakened people to the hypocrisy and futility of war.

Born in Tampa, Florida, House began expressing herself through poetry before her age reached double digits. She published her first books of poetry in the 1980s, including Blood River (1983) and Rainrituals (1989), both published by Broadside Press. In 2003, her third collection, Shrines, was published by Third World Press. Medicine, her most recent book, was published in 2017 as a joint endeavor of Broadside Lotus and University of Detroit Mercy Press. All of House’s poetry collections have been published under her chosen name, Aneb Kgositsile.

During the Black Arts/Black Consciousness movement, House was among a community of artists that included poet Sonia Sanchez; poet and founder of Third World Press Haki Madhubuti; South African Poet Laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile; playwright Ron Milner; dancer-choreographer Jackie Hillsman; and poet and founder of Broadside Press Dudley Randall. House was also active in the free speech movement while attending UC Berkeley. After leaving university to teach in a freedom school in Selma, Alabama, she worked as a field secretary in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She drafted SNCC’s statement against the Vietnam War, the first public opposition to the war to be issued by a civil rights organization.

In Detroit, she co-founded the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and the Justice for Cuba Coalition, and she participated as a teacher, administrator, and board member in the building of three African-centered schools. Active since the 1970s with Broadside Press, she was lead editor of A Different Image: The Legacy of Broadside Press, which won the Michigan Notable Books award in 2005.

For over 40 years, House taught at the university level (Wayne State University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, University of Witwatersrand in South Africa), and as a volunteer in classes for elementary and high school students in Detroit’s Afrocentric independent schools. She co-chaired Wayne State’s Black Caucus, and designed UM-Dearborn’s curriculum for African American and African Studies (AAAS) and served as the program’s director. Upon her retirement, House was named professor emerita at UM-Dearborn (2014) and associate professor emerita at WSU (1998). Her contributions to future generations of artists and activist extends beyond the classroom, as she has consistently collaborated with and mentored young Detroit writers.

House’s contributions as a writer and activist continue. She is active in local efforts to end water shutoffs, in the Detroit Independent Freedom Schools Movement’s effort to provide classes in African American culture for Detroit students, and as co-editor of the quarterly print publication, Riverwise.

We are grateful to the panel of artists and arts professionals who selected House to receive the 2019 Kresge Eminent Artist Award. She not only exemplifies the criteria for the award, but embodies the inspiration and hope of James Weldon Johnson’s poem, which stirred her consciousness at a young age:

“Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ‘til victory is won.”

May we all be as bold in our vision and courageous in our convictions as Dr. Gloria House, and march together until victory is truly won.

Vincent Chandler is a native Detroiter and protégé of one of the strongest era’s of the Detroit jazz scene, having studied and/or performed with local heroes such as Donald Walden, Kenn Cox, Harold McKinney, Teddy Harris, Marcus Belgrave, Matt Michaels, Francisco Mora, Eddie Nuccilli, Wendall Harrison, Spencer Barefield, Ronald Kischuk, James Carter, Marion Hayden, Regina Carter, and Rodney Whitaker. He has also performed internationally with jazz legends such as Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, JALC feat. Wynton Marsalis, Oliver Lake, Bobby Watson, Geri Allen, Roy Hargrove, Ravi Coltrane, JD Allen, Marcus Strickland, Wycliff Gordon, Walter Smith III, Robert Hurst, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Russell Malone, Randy Brecker and Ambrose Akinmusire. He is a featured soloist on “Requiem,” from Roy Hargrove’s only Big Band CD called “Emergence,” James Carter’s “At the Crossroads,” and Rodney Whitaker/Carl Allen’s “Work to Do.” In 2014 he released his first CD as a bandleader, called Vincent Chandler “Embraceable,” including Robert Hurst on Bass.

Mr. Chandler earned his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Music and a Masters of Music in Improvisation from the University of Michigan. He was a Graduate Student Instructor and eventually a Lecturer of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan. He was an Instructor of Jazz Trombone and Jazz Octets at Michigan State University. He was an Instructor, Director of Jazz Studies at Claflin University and an Applied Low Brass Instructor at South Carolina State University.

Mr. Chandler has a reputation for being a uniquely expressive trombone soloist, a versatile sideman, innovative composer and arranger, a crowd pleasing scat singer, an experienced bandleader of various group sizes and a natural teacher of beginner to advanced students.