https://gofund.me/c0c3fb4b7

I sat down with the illustrious DJ Short Blitz at The BBE Store in London to discuss his journey as a legendary Hip-Hop DJ.

​Shortee Blitz is a multi-award-winning DJ, broadcaster, producer and one of themost respected figures in UK Hip Hop & Black Music culture.

​Starting out in 1992 as part of an underground sound system, he cut his teeth rocking illegal house parties before transitioning into clubs across London. His reputation quickly grew, leading him to become the official DJ for the late, legendary MC, Ty.

​Shortee became a household name when he joined the iconic Kiss FM Hip Hop Show as the weekly mix DJ. It wasn’t long before he took over the reins, in a reshuffle at the station, shaping the sound of UK Hip Hop radio for nearly three decades and helping to champion artists, movements and culture with authenticity and authority.

https://gofund.me/2f6042ff7

Leave It for the Children:
A Visual History of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra
(with Darol Olu Kae, 2026)

Leave it for the Children: A Visual History of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra blends new and archival images and ephemera to highlight the ongoing legacy of the renowned community jazz organization.

Dr. Samuel Lamontagne is a writer, scholar, and professor at the University of California, Riverside. His work explores Black music as a form of knowledge production and a central site of Black intellectual, cultural, and political life. Grounded in sustained engagement with musicians, archives, and community-based cultural institutions, his research and collaborative projects center histories of freedom, resistance, and imagination in the African diaspora.

His recent projects include Leave It for the Children (Angel City Press, 2026), co-edited with Darol Olu Kae, which explores the sixty-five years of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, the community-based ensemble founded in Los Angeles by Horace Tapscott. He is also co-director, with H. Samy Alim and Tabia Shawel, of In the Hour of Chaos, a documentary covering Chuck D’s teaching at UCLA, developed alongside a companion volume published by the University of California Press (2026). Together, they co-established the UCLA Hip Hop Initiative, a platform for research, pedagogy, and public programming.

Beyond the university, his work extends into radio, archival production, and music communities. He is a radio producer and DJ with DUBLAB and has been involved in independent music networks in Los Angeles and beyond through collaborations with Preferences Records and The Village Records. His projects include co-producing the reissue of Wala Wala Bok? (1996), the debut album of the pioneering Senegalese hip hop group Pee Froiss, and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra’s 60-Years compilation.

His work has been featured in outlets including the Los Angeles Times and NPR’s The World, as well as international media such as RFI and EFE. His research and projects have been presented at institutions including the Hammer Museum, the California African American Museum, the Grammy Museum, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), and the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet in Paris.

https://gofund.me/6d4221cea

Ade Egun Crispin Robinson, known as Spry, is a musician and a babalawo from London. Of mixed Jamaican and English heritage, he has a lifetime’s immersion in the music, culture and history of the Black Atlantic. His musical journey has moved through Jah Shaka sound system, the UK acid-jazz scene, contemporary London jazz, West African Mande music and the Afro-Cuban Orisha tradition.

He was an original member of the band Galliano in the 1990s, and currently plays with the Mande jazz collective Balimaya Project. His first professional recordings were with Soul II Soul in the late 80s and over the years he has played and recorded with Roni Size, Omar, Brian Eno, Mulatu Astatke, Slum Village, Dwele, Roy Ayers, Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Sun Ra Orchestra, Steam Down, Dave Okumu, Shabaka, Anthony Joseph, Moses Boyd, Nao and many others.

A major part of Spry’s life has been his relationship with Orisha and Ifa. He is an omo Aña, omo Obatala, and babalawo, with initiations in Cuba in 2004, 2010, and 2012, and has spent many years playing sacred batá in ceremonies across the Orisha Atlantic, from Havana and New York to Lagos, Paris and London.

https://gofund.me/6d4221cea

Wayne Crichlow (aka chasingthelight_67) is a London-based documentary and street photographer, and the Founder of Chasing The Light Media Ltd, a creative media platform encompassing photography, film, podcasting and long-form visual storytelling. Born in East London, his work examines social justice, protest movements, storytelling, and everyday life within Black British and urban communities. He is the son of Caribbean migrants who arrived in the United Kingdom during the post-war period, part of a generation whose movement reshaped British society and forms part of the wider African and Caribbean diaspora.

Wayne Campbell is a London based photographer, my work has allowed me to capture many emotional and spectacular moments, often in amazing locations whilst meeting some incredible people. In 2020 my view of photography went on an explosive journey, I discovered Visual Activism and gave birth to 'A Celebration of Demonstration' This idea came from the understanding that art can be used to express our emotions and our empathy. This journey began with a collection of images I captured in London, after the televised, brutal murder of George Floyd. At this time, we were also being told to stay indoors, to protect the NHS and to help stop the spread of the Coronavirus. I felt that I was living in the middle of two pandemics, coronavirus and racism. Fast forward to 2022, and my first photography book 'A Celebration of Demonstration' is in production, this work feeds my soul and burns bright my creativity. By 2024 my second self-published photography books '0710 Year One' is released. Visual Activism is a language, which I will continue to use to tell stories and to share voices.

​

A Celebration of Demonstration is located at:

Unit 22a Market Row, Brixton Village SW9 8LF

In this episode, I discuss legendary saxophonist John Coltrane with talented historians, writers, and, of course, musicians. One of those musicians, Charles McPherson, knew Coltrane personally. Coltrane's signature album A Love Supreme and his groundbreaking song "Giant Steps" are singled out for attention, and we talk about his classic quartet with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison, as well as some of his other great bandmates, including Eric Dolphy, Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, and Alice Coltrane. Coltrane's spirituality, its influence on his sound, and his passion and dedication to the horn permeate the interviews.

Recommended listening:

A Love Supreme Blue Train
Africa Brass Impressions
Giant Steps Meditations
Kulu Se Mama Black Pearls
Transition Live at Birdland
Duke Ellington and John Coltrane Interstellar Space
Ballads Coltrane's Sound
Out of This World My Favorite Things

https://www.gofundme.com/u/d5009c4a-fdcd-4494-bc4b-b19377260e17

TEAR THE CITY DOWN is a classic noir—a find-the-girl mystery, a father-daughter story, a buddy story—but Hardy subverts the genre with a front-face Black world that has jazz running through its bones. Exploring race, identity, power and agency, this is a series launch not to be missed.

The odds of being drafted into the NFL are roughly 1.6%. The odds of landing a debut novel with a Big Five publisher aren't much better. Andre Hardy has done both—and he's applied for a Guinness World Record to prove it. A former running back for the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, Hardy went on to earn an MFA from Antioch University and secure a two-book deal with Grand Central Publishing. His debut novel, TEAR THE CITY DOWN, publishes September 1, 2026.

Andre Hardy has written across multiple genres, including creative nonfiction, essays and short stories, screenwriting, and long-form narrative. Andre’s essays, interviews, and critical analysis have been published in L.A. Tribe Magazine, Lunch Ticket, Antioch University’s cutting-edge literary and visual arts journal, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. His short story, “Negro in a Hot Tub,” is featured in Made in L.A.: An Anthology of Stories Rooted in the City of Angels, written by Los Angeles-based writers. Andre was the fourth pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1984 National Football League draft. He is a member of the NFL Retired Players Association and the NFL Legends Community, and he earned his MFA through the NFL Players Trust tuition reimbursement program. Andre

was born and raised in San Diego and recently moved to Charlotte, NC with his beautiful wife, renowned Buddhist meditation teacher JoAnna Hardy.

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.