Visiting Harlem for the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival

The last weekend of August is always the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in New York, with performances in Harlem on Saturday and the East Village on Sunday. This year was the 30th Anniversary of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, and I decided to head to Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem on Saturday for a change as I have only been to the Sunday performances in the East Village. It was a subway ride away, just like the East Village, and I followed my Google maps to the Marcus Garvey Park, where the first thing I encountered was this sculpture titled Renaissance Women by Alice Mizrachi, which I am glad I got to see before its residency ends on Aug 31, 2022 –

I walked past a bunch of food trucks to get to the music, and was surprised to find a big performance space that was already quite full, especially under the shady areas as it was a very hot day –

The first performer I experienced was Vuyo Sotashe, a South African jazz vocalist –

Vuyo had not just an amazing voice but also amazing stage presence and a fantastic sense of style, making it a memorable performance.

This was followed by Nikara Warren, whose grandfather, also a well known musician, was also in the audience –

I unfortunately had to head back after these performances, and encountered this sculpture from a distance on my way to the subway that I later researched is titled Thomas J. Price: Witness.

I crossed a whole lot of very interesting murals called the Grandscale Mural Project by Uptown Grand Central with half a mile of murals created by over 100 artists –

Here are some of the murals, I will have to go back to take pictures of the rest of them –

The art continued onto the 125th Street subway station, which was full of art celebrating musical heritage of Harlem –

All in all I need to make the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival a two day event instead of picking one of the two days, as both the East Village and Harlem are so special in their own way.

I love that my musical journey from Friday, which I wrote about here, continued into the weekend like this.

#gottalovenewyork