The Seeds of Black Lily

The Seeds of Black Lily is an audio documentary exploring Black music in Philadelphia at the turn of the Century, and the performance space that made the movement possible.

In this episode, we explore the role of media and changing technologies in documenting the movement as it was taking shape in Philadelphia. In the first portion of episode 4, we feature some of the people that helped document that moment as well as their use of media: filmmaker, Mike D., radio host, Tiffany Bacon, and writer and co-founder of Okayplayer[dot]com, Angela Nissel.

In the second portion of this episode, we discuss the final days of Black Lily and the fire that took place at the Five Spot. But, we don’t just leave off there. That time at the Five Spot continues to reverberate across time and space!

The atmosphere created by the Jazzyfatnastees helped water the seeds for future generations to come. As such, the second portion of the episode features drummer and singer-songwriter, Tre Lambert, and writer, Jasmin Johnson — two artists from Philadelphia that follow in the tradition of Black music and Black performance practices!

You can visit 808s and Jazz Breaks for more info on this episode and the entire series!