John Coltrane workshop with Robert Kenyatta.  Part of Coltrane’s evolution as a composer was his embracing the world and becoming a global citizen through deeper knowledge of the spiritual and cultural traditions of the world, and that included Africa and the African diaspora.  Robert Kenyatta was among a group of African Drummers practicing at the Church  of the Advocate when Coltrane came and asked if he could play with them.  The drummers shared their knowledge of basic rhythms that Coltrane used as a basis for the compositions he created in the last year of his life.  Mr. Kenyatta joined Coltrane on stage at Temple University for his last Philadelphia performance.  This workshop will be interactive and participants will learn and play traditional African rhythms on instruments provided.

Dox Thrash was an influential artist and activist who lived and worked in Philadelphia from the late 1920s until his death in 1965. In 1937, Thrash became the first African American to be employed by the Fine Print Workshop in Philadelphia, a division of the WPA Federal Arts Project, where he invented the carborundum mezzotint process, hailed as the most significant technical development in printmaking since the development of lithography in the late eighteenth century. Learn more about Dox Thrash and create a print of your own to take home.