Week 1, History of Race Origins, October 4th 2-4 pm

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 Greetings! My name is Maurice D. Robertson jazz music aficionado and beyond. I have been serving the music community here in Hartford, CT as a volunteer, jazz announcer from 1976-present, with a weekly show, Accent on Creative Music, airing from 9-12, Wednesday night's, at WWUH.org, 91.3fm. A cornucopia of sounds from the standard bearers of the art form to the present new contributors. My show includes a comprehensive jazz calendar, interviews and birthday acknowledgements. I am also a board member with the Hartford Jazz Society, based in CT. America's oldest ongoing jazz society, established in 1960 to assist in the flourishing of this music, through concert presentations, educational workshops, a jazz cruise and assisting in the promotion of the CT Jazz scene. With my camera in hand, for the past four decades, I have been chronicling jazz and other music genres. I am attempting to convey to the viewer, both the flowing dynamism and intimate, meditative qualities of musicians intensely at play. Through strict portraiture and camera speed and lighting experimentation, an attempt to instill rapport and intimacy with the vitality of music making. I have been on the set, bearing witness since the seventies, with no formal art training, a student of the school of trial and error. Just an avid listener, who grew up in a household where all types of music, notably jazz, calypso, reggae, rnb and movie soundtracks and more were appreciated. The camera connection came from watching my father document all, family gatherings and a few select vacation sites. Since then, I have been guided by my own research of the masters of jazz photography, such as Herman Leonard, Roy De Carava, James Marshall, William Gottlieb, Charles Stewart and Gordon Parks Sr. to name, but a few and sessions with area mentors and workshops in digital photography and printing. My ongoing photo work is a love affair with jazz and its offshoots and is simply a quest for displaying the energy of performance and connecting the audience to some of the past and present contributors to America’s greatest cultural, contribution to the world. 

 Andres Chaparro is a mixed media painter and collagist whose bold and expressive art is a visual representation of jazz music.  Chaparro’s work most recently in 2017 has been published in the book “Making The Cut, Volume 1, The Worlds Best Collage Artists” by Crooks Press in Australia.  As his work continues to rise in recognition and garnered by art and music enthusiast around the globe, Andres continues to refine his own visual vocabulary through his focus on the intersection between art and music.

As early as he can remember, music and art have been an important part of his life.  At the age of 13, Andres was introduced to jazz music which he made an instant spiritual connection.  This was a defining moment in his life as an artist.  While in high school he would make frequent visits to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, which opened up the world of visual art for him.   He always had an affinity for drawing, but it was the museum visits that made him fall in love with art.

In the late 1980’s Andres began painting on canvas while completing his studies in New York City.  He explored jazz as an enthusiast and visited SoHo art galleries and other major museums during this time.  Chaparro's early paintings explored different mediums and subject matters, but he was always drawn back to Jazz inspired work. 
Andres’ paints out of his Windsor, CT studio, his mix media paintings incorporate collage, oil pastels, marker, crayon, pencil, acrylic, spray paint, and found objects.  His artwork is fluid and free, and the paintings reflect more concern for spontaneous emotion rather than traditional conventions, strong color contrast, and distorted subject matter.  His paintings can be found in a myriad of permanent public and private art collections nationally and internationally.   

 Leslie Manselle is a performing and teaching artist who specializes in voice, drama and movement, and brings her art to the people. She serves the community in Hartford through local municipal entities, community organizations, churches, schools, non-profits, social services agencies, and others.

Ms. Manselle’s artistic and singing experience spans far and wide. For decades, Ms. Manselle has been a spiritual singer. She’s worked with the Judy Dworin Performance Project as an actress and singer. Ms. Manselle has been singing with the Women of the Cross, a women’s acapella vocal group for nearly 30 years. She is a writer, administrator and facilitator for several grant-funded programs throughout the Hartford Area. 

Tang Sauce was born and raised in Hartford, CT. He is the son of noted cartoonist, author, and filmmaker Joe Young and Leslie Manselle. He has two brothers and one sister. He learned to play the cornet at the age of eleven and eventually picked up the guitar and piano in high school. He attended the Artist Collective in Hartford to study Jazz and tap dance, becoming a member of the Youth Jazz Ensemble, and attended and graduated from Manchester High School, where he also was a member of the schools' Jazz ensemble. While a student at Capital Community College, he continued to build on his talents in dancing, rapping, and acting, citing as his inspiration Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Will Smith and Nick Cannon for his early hip-hop influences, as well as Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham, Kid David, Meghus, and Sidney Poitier for performance. A chance viewing of the dance film You Got Served compelled him to take dancing seriously, which he immersed himself in the fundamentals of breakdancing, eventually getting cast as a dancer in a production of The Wiz.  

Further appearances in Hartford Stage and Neighborhood Studios collaborations of A Midsummer Night's Dream and A Raisin In the Sun helped fuel his confidence, but he preferred to pursue hip-hop, first touring around Hartford performing his blend of old-school, positive hip-hop, often cited as a throwback to early rap artists KRS-One and Wu-Tang Clan, where he would eventually acquire his moniker. He made appearances at the annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival,[2] eventually hosting the event, the Springfield Jazz Roots Festival, and the Shrine World Music Venue. After a brief appearance in a Jidenna music video "Knickers" as a trumpeter, Tang Sauce went into the studio to record what would be his debut mixtape Maturity. Released February 27, 2016, it received positive reviews and spawned the singles and music videos "One Time For Your Mind", "Good Ol' Days", and "Ego-Trippin". Following those releases, Tang Sauce kicked off the New England leg of his MaTourity and appeared in AfroPunk 2017 as part of the battle of the bands, and will appear on August 11, 2017, as a Top 4 finalist. In 2018, Tang Sauce released his next project "Seniority", which was accompanied by a one-act play starring Tang Sauces' title character.

Anne Gogh is a proud Hartford native committed to uplifting the community and herself through self-care, expression, and safe spaces. She is determined to fortify the importance of veracity and altruism.

She is a visual & performing artist who creates anything from upcycled garments to spoken word. Before she could even write her name, she was producing art.

Currently, Anne: is fully engulfed in working with the community. As an Employment Specialist, she aides in providing opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live lives of inclusion, choice, independence, and continuous growth. She is also a facilitator at Toivo and the Art in Residence for Kamora's Cultural Corner. 

Olusanya Bey does not call himself a writer or poet instead he describes himself as a ‘heartist’, “someone who uses his gift with words to remind us of what it means to be human, what it means to be a living breathing work of art”.  

Olusanya serves as a Teaching Artist, teaches Poetry as an introduction to ‘mindful writing’, which he describes as… a means to reconnect with the essence of the writing process, through which you can describe how the world touches you and how you touch the world).  

He also facilitates workshops in Mindfulness and the art of  BEing HUman. Olusanya has performed poetry and conducted workshops in both mindfulness and poetry across the East Coast, including The University of Connecticut, Watkinson School, Kingswood Oxford, Goodwin College, and Trinity College. He was a member of the first team from Hartford, CT to participate in the National Poetry Slams competition in Seattle, WA, in 2001 (along with Iyaba Ibo Mandingo and our new Poet Laureate Frederick Douglass Knowles). He is also the founder and Yin President of Hartford’s Iron Poet. Olu attended, St. John’s University, served as a Residential r Residential Diversity Counselor at The Discovery Center, and as a Public Ally at Public Allies Connecticut.

We want to hear from you! -And share with you! If you have missed our project sessions, this is a great opportunity to sample, survey, and get to share your own story & experiences 'live' on 'Race and Color' 

"Drop-in" and catch up with some of our featured artists and performers recording segments that continue to explore our race and color narratives