From Denise Young
Chair, Board of Trustees
With music and civic duty ingrained in my upbringing, I view my appointment to Chair of the SFJAZZ Board of Trustees as an opportunity to meet the moment. In the face of profound challenges, we can forge a new path and I choose to do so with this extraordinary organization. We invite you to do the same by joining us in the Call & Response Campaign.
Black Codes, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter are all embedded in the 'silence between the notes.'
Jazz and Black American music has chronicled our history, laid bare our pain, and communicated our hopes and dreams better than any other vehicle. But being Black in today’s America deeply affects the artists we know and love – when traveling from one performance to the next, standing before a classroom fraught with disparity, or facing unjust obstructions in their paths to success. And yet, they appear on our stages and unfailingly delight us. Black Codes, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter are all embedded in the "silence between the notes."
In this time of significant need, SFJAZZ brings continued support to artists and empowers thousands of students to be agents of change. Today, with a call for a more just and resilient society, response is at the core of the SFJAZZ mission. We stand with our artists and communities by providing a space where we as a society can do better.
Join the Call & Response Campaign
You have made SFJAZZ a sanctuary for live music – reaching 250,000 live audience members with rich artistry, and touching over 23,000 middle school students every year in schools in Oakland and San Francisco. Please support SFJAZZ during our Call & Response Campaign.
Your gift is essential for the reopening of our stages and supports SFJAZZ Digital, a growing platform of on-demand and live-streamed concerts that provides musicians with much-needed financial support, expands access for a broader audience, and brings SFJAZZ distance learning curriculum to schools throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
Please join me in sustaining an irrefutable voice for humanity for generations to come.
With appreciation,
Denise Young