Celebrating The East: Brooklyn's Black Nation

The 2024 NYC Winter Jazz Fest will celebrate The East, with a special screening of the document film “The Run Rises in the East” on Thursday, January 4 at the Nitehawk Theater in Williamsburg; a Jazz Talks session at the Moxy Hotel in Williamsburg, on Saturday, January 13 on the impact of The East; and “A Night At the East” at Crown Hill Theater on Sunday, January 14, a re-imagining of legendary jazz performances that took place at The East.

A film by Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa, a husband-and-wife filmmaking team and the creators of Black-Owned Brooklyn, The Sun Rises in The East is the first feature-length documentary to explore this inspiring story. The film also examines challenges that led to the organization’s eventual dissolution, including government surveillance, its gender politics and financial struggles. Featuring interviews with leaders of The East, historians and people who grew up in the organization as children, The Sun Rises in The East delivers an exhilarating and compelling vision for just how much is possible.

Presented on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, “A Night at the East” will feature an all-star jazz lineup, including Gary Bartz, Billy Hart, David Murray, Shabaka, Nicole Mitchell, Ahmed Abdullah, Moor Mother, Charles Burnham, Julius Rodriguez, Luke Stewart, Elucid, and Kweku Sumbry

The East was a pan-African cultural organization founded in 1969 by teens and young adults in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Led by educator and activist Jitu Weusi, The East embodied Black self-determination, building dozens of institutions, including its own African-centered school, food co-op, newsmagazine, publishing company, record label, restaurant, clothing shop and bookstore.

A one-of-a-kind venue and meeting place for Black people along Claver Place in Bed-Stuy from 1969 through the 1980s, it was the site of many landmark performances from Max Roach, Sun Ra, Betty Carter, Pharoah Sanders and other jazz legends. Gathering tonight will be an all-star lineup including direct East participants Billy Hart and Gary Bartz alongside Shabaka , Moor Mother, Julius Rodriguez, Luke Stewart, Nicole Mitchell, Elucid, Kweku Sumbry and Charles Burnham.