NBAF is a cultural compass and living archive. Explore what we’re reading, hearing, seeing, and creating below.
Experience the inspiration and joy of creation and performance in Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life , an intimate portrait of a unique artist and his audience. Set in the studio, on the stage, and in great cities and small towns across the country, this book captures life on the road for Marsalis and his musicians, evoking its ritual and renewal, energy and spirituality.
Describing the art of improvisation, the book's two voices mirror the interplay at the heart of jazz. "On the road and on the bandstand," Marsalis writes, "something great may happen at any moment, something that might even change your life." Alternately luminous and boisterous, often poignant, and always passionate, Marsalis and Vigeland's extraordinary dialogue is a must for fans, musicians, and anyone curious about America's only indigenous art form.
Creative AF is our monthly nod to the culture-shapers, boundary-pushers, and vision-bearers whose work makes us pause, move, and think.
Amber Iman is a performer, filmmaker, activist, and one of the most sought-after theatre artists and vocalists working today. A proud Howard University graduate, she debuted on Broadway as the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone, in Soul Doctor, earning rave reviews and a Clive Barnes Award nomination. Since, she has been seen in George C. Wolfe's Shuffle Along beside theatre luminaries Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, etc.; she was also in the first National Tour of the megahit musical, Hamilton, and has performed Off Broadway and regionally with New York Theatre Workshop, New World Stages, Two River Theater, the Kennedy Center, and many more, earning Helen Hayes and IRENE Award nominations, and winning the Ovation Award and the prestigious Emery Battis Award for Acting Excellence from Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. Favorite recent credits include: Nadira in Goddess (Berkeley Rep) and Pam Brown in Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical (A.C.T.).
On TV, Amber has been seen on High Maintenance for HBO, and her self-produced short film Steve, has been a critical darling at film festivals across the country and internationally, winning Best Short, Best Actress, and the Audience Choice Award. She starts production on her second short, Blackberry Winter, this Spring. As an activist, Amber is the proud Co-Founder of Broadway Advocacy Coalition and Black Women on Broadway. In 2021, Amber was honored with a Tony Award for her work with BAC. Her Webby Award nominated one woman show, An Evening with Amber Iman, is available on Audible
High Museum of Art
This road trip brings us a little closer to home to the High Museum of Art who joins the national tour for Amy Sherald’s acclaimed mid-career retrospective, which is the largest exhibition of her work to date. Featuring a broad range of paintings made from 2007 to 2024, the presentation includes many of Sherald’s most iconic works, along with rarely seen paintings spanning her career.
Born in Columbus, Georgia, Sherald has deep ties to Atlanta and to the High. She trained as a painter in the city and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, the High awarded her its annual David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History, the first national award to recognize the importance of African American art. The museum presented The Obama Portraits Tour, featuring her renowned portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, in 2022.
The High is the fourth and final venue for this exhibition, which is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), where it debuted in 2024, and which previously traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition was on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art before it came to Atlanta.
📍 Atlanta, GA
www.high.org
As Summer peeks in, we are reminded of family. Whenever family gathered there was always good music, food, conversation and lots of love. Enjoy our “Kin” playlist which blends a little of the past with the present, just like at the family cookout.
