Event – Detail Past

Suzanne Cloud PhD, director of the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project and jazz archive initiative, and Dr. Diane Turner, curator of the Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University, will talk about the historic and world-renowned Philadelphia jazz scene. Their book: Images of America: Philadelphia Jazz will be for sale and these scholars will be on for book signings. These women are happy to bring their story-telling and jazz knowledge to the Athaneaum to entertain and enlighten jazz fans, music lovers, urban Black history buffs, and Philly folks who love the city.

Suzanne Cloud, writer, historian, and jazz musician received her doctorate in American Studies with a focus on the Philadelphia jazz community from the University of Pennsylvania. Cloud has published six YA history books, contributed to Harvard’s African American National Biography Project, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Broad Street Review, and JazzTimes. Her play Last Call at the Downbeat debuted at the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Cloud, founding director of Jazz Bridge, is currently director of the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to create an archive of Philly jazz. Suzanne Cloud’s recordings are on Spotify, Amazon, and SoundCloud.

Diane D. Turner, PhD, writer and historian is Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries.  The Blockson Collections has over 700,000 items including photographs and archives of prominent jazz musicians.  Her areas of specialization and research include African American Labor, Cultural and Social History, Philadelphia Jazz History, Independent Black Filmmakers, Oral History and Public History.  Her dissertation is entitled Organizing and Improvising: A History of Philadelphia’s Black Musicians’ Protective Union Local 274, American Federation of Musician.  She has written many articles and authored three books published by Third World Press that include My Name is Oney Judge (2010), Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought (2011) and Our Grand Pop is a Montford Point Marine (2018),co-authored with her father, Corporal Thomas S. Turner Sr.  She is co-author with Suzanne Cloud of Philly Jazz (2022) published by Arcadia Publishing.  She serves on a number of advisory boards including the Philadelphia Clef Club Artist Advisory Board.

Student Tickets: Free, email a copy of your photo ID to events@PhilaAthenaeum.org to receive registration info.