“Can you feel a brand new day?
… from “The Wiz”

Hello friends,

Back in April when planning for the second week of our Sunday Messages, I wanted to use the song, “Brand New Day” from The Wiz. The staff vetoed that choice feeling that we could not see or feel a “brand new day” yet. Today I use only the title but soon I hope we can use the song.

In just a few hours, we begin “THE NEW” at the Carr Center with a Father’s Day Concert featuring our Resident Artist in Jazz Rodney Whitaker and Family with special guest Michael Dease. We offer you two opportunities to enjoy this newly produced virtual concert filmed in Rodney’s home last week. Catch the premiere at 1:00 p.m. on DPTV.org/arts or an encore presentation on our YouTube channel as well as our Facebook page at 6:00 p.m.

Following the Father’s Day Concert our Summer Season, Revive , begins!

We will return to the Carr Center Gallery on Friday, July 10. We will start by reopening a more extensive GRAILS exhibition. Later this summer, we will offer a two-part virtual Revival Service designed to examine the current times, the history behind them and where we might be going as artists, cultures and community. It is our plan to use this two-day Revival Service to reignite the juices of creatives, not only in Detroit but around the world.

Terri Lyne Carrington , our Artistic Director and Jazz Journalists Association Artist of the Year, will perform LIVE in late July in another newly produced virtual concert with a special guest direct from her home in Boston. We will also present our very first Virtual Cinema Screening Room.

These programs will provide a preview into what we will be presenting next season, ALL at the Carr Center Contemporary. More details on the summer season will be released, in conjunction with other Midtown Cultural Center announcements, in the coming days, so stay tuned!

And finally, on Friday, I had the opportunity to spend some time with April Baer on Michigan Radio’s, Stateside . The conversation is wide ranging with considerable discussion about THE NEW and my recent message about the Dual Pandemic. I invite you to take a listen at https://bit.ly/2ATjyTf then please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments.

I hope you enjoy our Father’s Day presentation and I look forward to seeing you back in the Gallery in just a few weeks. It is a Brand New Day!

Oliver Ragsdale Jr.
President, the Carr Center
Oliver@thecarrcenter.org