https://gofund.me/9ee7bcb33

Son of D.C.
Voice of the Bass
Corcoran Holt—bassist, composer, arranger, and educator—is a son of Washington, D.C. who began playing djembe and West African percussion at the age of four with the Wose Dance Company under Baba Aidoo Holmes and Mahiri Fadjimba Keita. At ten, he took up the upright bass with the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program, discovering a family connection to the instrument through his great-grandfather, a bassist who reportedly gave lessons to a young John Coltrane. While studying classical bass at DCYOP, Holt attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts (1996–2000), working under Carolyn Kellock, Davey Yarborough, the late Keter Betts, and Steve Novasel, and soon began performing widely on the D.C. jazz scene.

In this episode we discuss his 2026 sophomore album, Freedom of Art, a deeply personal and expansive statement that explores themes of lineage, fatherhood, identity, community, and spiritual growth. Featuring an all-star ensemble, the project blends original compositions with intimate interludes that incorporate the voices of family, mentors, and lived experience. The album has received critical acclaim, including a 4-star review in DownBeat, and continues to resonate with audiences for its honesty, depth, and musical integrity.

https://corcoranholt.com

Jones is an internationally recognised educator, currently holding the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz at John Hopkins University's Peabody Conservatory and is Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall's NYO Jazz ensemble. Previously, Jones was Chair of the Brass Department at Berkeley College of Music and served as President of the Jazz Educators Network.

Jones was lead trumpet for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the SF JAZZ Collective, and is now with the Baltimore Jazz Collective. He is featured on three GRAMMY Award-nominated albums by Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, and Gerald Wilson.

In this episode we discussed his journey as an artist, his church upbringing and how spiritually and eastern philosophy has shaped his life.

Chenjerai Kumanyika is an assistant professor of journalism at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and an award-winning narrative audio creator whose work sits at the intersection of journalism, public history, and organizing. Kumanyika is the creator, executive producer, and host of Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD, a chart-topping series featured in The New York Times. He co-created and co-hosted the Peabody Award–winning podcast Uncivil and collaborated on Scene on Radio’s landmark series Seeing White. Across these projects, he blends archival research, field reporting, and character-driven storytelling to examine race and power, the political economy of media, and the histories shaping public safety today.

Beyond the studio, he builds impact campaigns that connect journalism to action — partnering with community organizations, labor groups, and educators to develop live events, teach-ins, and curriculum that move audiences from listening to engagement. He serves on the National Council of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), organizing around academic freedom and the future of higher education, and sits on the boards of Street Poets, Resolve, Hammer & Hope, and The Moth. In the classroom, he teaches interdisciplinary critical thinking about power and mentors emerging journalists through rigorous, ethics-forward training in reporting, interviewing, and sound design.

His current work expands this model through Unruly Subjects, a new project that pairs timely conversations with crafted documentary segments, music, and scene-based reporting. Across mediums, Kumanyika’s goal is consistent: tell unforgettable stories that clarify how power works and help listeners imagine, and organize for, something better.

London based DJ, producer, poet and cultural force Charlie Dark has spent decades shaping the sound and spirit of UK underground culture. A founding member of Attica Blues, his journey began in the early 1990s at the intersection of hip hop, jazz, soul and spoken word, driven by a deep belief in music as a tool for connection, expression and community building.

On the dancefloor, Charlie Dark is known for sets that are joyful, spiritual and deeply rooted in black music history. Drawing from house, disco, funk, soul, Afrobeat, jazz and beyond, his DJ sets prioritise feeling, flow and togetherness over rigid genre boundaries. His selections are guided by intuition and intention, creating spaces where dancers feel seen, uplifted and connected.

Beyond clubs and festivals, Charlie’s impact extends far into the cultural landscape. He is the founder of Run Dem Crew, a globally recognised running collective that merges fitness, music and community, and the creator of the Love Is The Message dance events, which celebrate inclusive dancefloor culture through carefully curated line ups and shared energy. These projects reflect his wider mission to use music and movement as vehicles for positive change.

A respected mentor, curator and cultural historian, Charlie Dark continues to inspire across generations. Whether behind the decks, on the airwaves or leading communities through music and movement, his work remains rooted in joy, intention and the belief that dancefloors can still be sacred spaces.

In this episode I sat down with the London based poet, author, editor, educator & activist to discuss her journey as an artist. Born in Pakistan, she earned a BA in Liberal Arts from Bennington College, where she studied writing, photography, filmmaking and multi-media installation art. In 2003 she was awarded a fellowship to attend the MFA Creative Writing Programme at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

"My own life has been dictated by this desire for freedom. I left Pakistan when I was 18 in a quest for this elusive freedom."

In my latest episode I sat down with Jonzi D, he is the foremost advocate for hip hop who has changed the profile and influenced the development of the UK British hip hop dance and theatre scene over the last two decades.

Since founding Breakin’ Convention in 2004 Jonzi has triumphed in raising the profile and giving a platform to hip hop disciplines, which has gained worldwide recognition as being at the vanguard of the development of the art form. Through professional development projects Open Art Surgery and Back to the Lab, Jonzi has supported hundreds of hip hop dance and rap/poetry artists on their journey to creating theatre.

His critically acclaimed works include 1995‘s Lyrikal Fearta, 1999’s Aeroplane Man, 2006’s TAG… Just Writing My Name, 2009’s Markus the Sadist and 2013’s The Letter: To Be Or To MBE? about his choice to decline an MBE from the Queen. Jonzi’s has been featured in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, had his short films Silence da Bitchin’ & Aeroplane Man screened on Channel 4, toured his work extensively all over the world and delivered his own TED Talk about the influence and evolution of hip hop culture.

In 2020 Jonzi directed Our Bodies Back which won ‘Best Artistic Film’ as part of the Detroit Black film festival, followed up by the sequel, AUTOCORRECT in 2022. He also wrote Here/Not Here, a short film directed by Bim Ajadi which won the ‘Best Film’ category in Deaffest 2022.

In 2023, Jonzi D was awarded a citation from Al Taylor of the 71st District - New York State Assembly in recognition of his efforts for advancing and advocating hip hop culture in the UK and abroad, and the De Valois Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Dancing Times Critic’s Circle. In 2024, Jonzi D was nominated for his artistic direction of Breakin’ Convention, cementing the festival’s two decades as a mainstay in the world of theatre and beyond.

Critically acclaimed saxophonist, flautist and composer, Xhosa Cole is an embodiment of the success of numerous community outreach arts programmes in Birmingham, UK. Holding his spirituality at the center of his creative practice, Cole has been forging a career across communities in the UK and beyond. Having developed his unique mixed-heritage, black British queer voice in the Jazz tradition, Xhosa’s musical roots are in collaboration and improvisation. This alchemic mix has opened the doors to work alongside a diverse and expansive pool of creative forces from different traditions, cultures, backgrounds and practices.

The output of Cole’s artistic practice manifests through performance, composition and teaching; all informing and reinforcing each other. With a musical language that is informed by and spans across cultures and modalities, Xhosa is a sought after composer in the contemporary classical and improvising industries in the UK. Having been commissioned by the BBC, Symphony Hall, Ideas of Noise Festival and Flatpack Film Festival and Aldeburg Festival Cole is building his own methodology for composition that puts islamic geometry, natural structures/processes, West African rhythms and non-hierarchical orchestration and performance at its center. This unique combination is the foundation of highly invigorating music that has the stability of sacred music structures found in Wester- Harmony and free combustion of Black improvising traditions. Cole’s teachers include John O’gallager, Hans Koller and Pat Thomas, who supported in building an understanding of Western Classical composition from the foundations of Schoenberg’s ‘Fundamentals of Musical Composition’ through to the modalities of Messiaen, Bartok and Thelonious Monk.

In my second interview with Tongo Eisen-Martin, former Poet Laureate of San Francisco. We sat down to discuss his latest project "Traveling Shoes" which features composer Damani Rhodes and vocalist Vadia.