Seysew + LCC Commission • April 5th, 2025 • 7:30pm

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We are very excited to work with drummer and composer Keith Butler, Jr., on our first Little City Concerts Commission, tentatively titled Rest/Imagine: Themes for a Bloodline. Written for Seysew (voice, flute, piano, bass, drums), this piece is a rumination on literacy, black imagination, and the often unspoken history of families. For this performance with Seysew, Keith will be joined by vocalist Jaquay Smith, flutist Alex Hamburger, pianist Drew Kid, and bassist Stephen Arnold. Members of Seysew are mainstays in the DMV jazz/experimental music scene, and have played at venues around the city like The Kennedy Center, the DC Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Rhizome, the Strathmore Music Center, and Blues Alley. 

Our nonprofit partner for this event will be DC-based Teaching for Change. Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write, and change the world.

By drawing direct connections to real world issues, Teaching for Change encourages teachers and students to question and re-think the world inside and outside their classrooms; build a more equitable, multicultural society; and become active global citizens. Their professional development, publications, and parent organizing programs serve teachers, other school staff, and parents.