Solidarity

Dear Friends of the Jazz Center,

It feels like our known world is tearing apart at the seams. It’s easy to feel powerless – I have looked deeply for answers, but still come up short. Perhaps the power that we hold at the Jazz Center is that we are stewards of an institution whose mission is to honor a music which is indisputably African-American in origin.

It is for that reason that we at the Vermont Jazz Center actively stand with our friends and families of color in support of what is rightfully theirs: dignity, respect, fair policing, the dissolution of prejudice, the right to be in public without enduring scrutiny, suspicion or violence; human rights. We recognize that we are in need of a societal, economic and cultural shift to re-balance our relationships.

The Jazz Center is as an institution based on multiculturalism. We pledge to do our part in creating opportunities for people to come together to share music and words that dig beneath the surface. We seek to be an active catalyst for positive change.

Sincerely,

Eugene