April may bring showers in some cases, however, in the case of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro, April is bringing jazz and lots of it. The museum, which lately has featured a different theme every month, has announced its lineup of events for April – a slate that has plenty to offer area music lovers.
The main event in April will be the “Sit-In by Candlelight” on Thursday, April 18, an evening of poetry and jazz that will mix music with education and inspiration. The special guests include Fred Motley, Dr. Anjail Rashida Ahmad, Jacinta White and Sage Chioma.
The event, which is for those 18 and older, costs $10 a ticket and will include live entertainment and some food and beverages. It will run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. that evening.
That event is geared toward adults, but there are other events for all ages. For instance, on Friday, April 5, the Voices of God’s Children Choir performs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
And, on Saturday, April 13, from 11:00 a.m. to noon, the museum will hold a Children’s Story Hour featuring the RBH Players of NC A& T.
There will also be jazz-related educational programming at the museum in April. On Saturday, April 13, the museum will host “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,” from noon until 4 p.m. with discussion; and, on Saturday, April 27, it will show “What Happened, Miss Simone?” – an event that will run from noon until 4 p.m.
Throughout April, the museum will also use short video clips on social media to highlight “Musicians Breaking Barriers.” Those include Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Benny Goodman.
Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston, one of the founders of the museum, said recently that the museum is doing a lot to get the local community involved. He said it had a very successful Black History Month in February and it will have more exciting programs in the future. The museum’s signature event for Black History Month, February, was a large reunion of many people who participated in the Sit-In protests in 1960.
In March, which was Women’s History Month, the museum’s events were largely focused on strong women of the past. Two of those featured programs were “Twenty-six women who changed the world” and “Pies from nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott.”
The museum, which opened in 2010, commemorates the launch of the Sit-In protest at the whites-only lunch counter in the F.W. Woolworth’s building on Elm St. in Greensboro. On that day, four NC A&T State University students sat down at the lunch counter and refused to move. That non-violent protest to challenge the policy sparked similar protests across the country.
