New York’s Tin Pan Alley on West 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue was the birthplace of American Popular Music due to the many sheet music publishers based there in the late 19th and early 20th century. On Tin Pan Alley, African American artists lived, interacted, and worked in Harlem with Jewish talents and theatrical producers who resided and worked there too in what was then the second largest Jewish community in New York. Drawing from his research and extensive collection of sheet music and theater memorabilia, John Reddick’s talk weaves together this Black & Jewish collaboration that crafted the American songbook evolving from relationships rooted in Harlem and Tin Pan Alley.
Date: June 2021
