This special evening salutes a pathbreaking Black artist whose legacy continues to resonate today. Brilliant and glamorous, fluent in seven languages, Hazel Scott was a prodigiously talented jazz and classical pianist, a true media star who enjoyed fame on the concert stage, in film and in television in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. Defying segregation and breaking racial barriers as a performer, she would become an influential Civil Rights activist whose courageous testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities damaged a remarkable career.

Join us to view an excerpt from a new work created to honor her artistry and her extraordinary life, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s soon-to-be-premiered Sounds of Hazel, co-commissioned by Washington Performing Arts. The artist’s biographer Karen Chilton moderates a panel discussion bringing together Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Hazel Scott’s son, Adam Clayton Powell III, and Janet McKinney, Archivist, Music Division, Library of Congress. The Janelle Gill Trio performs to cap off the evening.

On view from 5:45 pm to 6:45 pm, Whittall Pavilion: Treasures from the Library’s Hazel Scott Collection

Presented in cooperation with Washington Performing Arts and Dance Theatre of Harlem

There will be no pre-concert talk for this event.