Photo Essay: Omni-American Future Project Awards Ceremony
On Monday, November 28, 2022, the Omni-American Future Project held its second annual awards ceremony at the historic Harlem jazz club Minton’s and its sister restaurant, The Cecil. The evening began with cocktails at Minton’s, as the featured jazz ensemble, led by trumpeter Itamar Borochov, performed scintillating music.
In The Cecil, invited guests broke bread together as Aryeh Tepper and I—as Co-Directors of the Omni-American Future Project—co-hosted the program. We told the story of a relationship of fraternity and collaboration among Jewish Americans and Black Americans in jazz music from the 1930s through the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s to our current era of possibility and peril. Throughout the evening we, and guest speakers such as Roya Hakakian, Clifford Thompson, David Bernstein, Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Ian Rowe and Pamela Paresky, wove in touchstones, including the momentous Carnegie Hall jazz concert led by Benny Goodman in 1938, that for the first time featured a racially integrated bandstand at the prestigious venue; the relationship between Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in which a prophetic and spiritual essence was suffused with love for and appreciation of music; and the the perennial legacy and insights of the blues idiom wisdom tradition as evidenced by the work and thought of Ralph Ellison, Stanley Crouch, Wynton Marsalis, and, especially, Albert Murray, whose ideas and words inspired the entire evening.
The honorees for the evening were Coleman Hughes, who was presented with the Omni-American Young Leaders Award by social and education entrepreneur Ian Rowe, and scholar and political philosopher Danielle Allen, introduced by author and psychologist Pamela Paresky. Professor Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard, accepted the Albert Murray Award for Omni-American Excellence via video.
Throughout the narrative flow, the centrality of Harlem and the literature, music, and religious life of its residents and historic figures was a common thread. We invite you to enjoy this photo essay featuring images taken by Richard Conde, from a marvelous evening of music, joy, and the ever-present opportunity to realize our democratic aspirations through civic and cultural excellence.
