I Guess It Was My Destiny To Live So Long with Jamila Woods, Tasha, and McKinley Dixon at BAM Strong, Harvey Theater
During the week of the 2024 US General Election, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Curator at Large and MacArthur Genius Hanif Abdurraqib curated a series of events titled “I Guess It Was My Destiny To Live So Long,” which honored the legacy of poet June Jordan. Three musicians from Chicago were chosen to perform in Brooklyn on Wednesday, November 6th, the day after the election: Jamila Woods, Tasha, and McKinley Dixon.
I captured the wonderful show for BAM and some images from the special night appear in the above gallery. I’ve been meaning to catch live sets by Tasha and McKinley Dixon for a while now, and didn’t experience a full set by Jamila Woods until last week (I previously saw her perform four songs in 2018 at Damrosch Park Bandshell at Lincoln Center). I’m so grateful to Hanif for his essential curation and for Cynthia at BAM for asking me to document such an incredible show.
A few of my images were published in a review of the series by Richard Burroughs titled “Finding Solace in Poetry’s Power of Possibility at the Brooklyn Academy of Music” in BK Reader here.