Entertainment

The Rebirth of Cool

THE AFRO — There was a surreal scene in the swanky Harbor East community over the Memorial Day weekend. Billy Murphy, the legendary defense attorney was holding court outside of a new nightclub with a group of other men, still buzzing after witnessing a world class jazz performance by Baltimore native Cyrus Chestnut.

Published

7 years ago

June 11, 2019

Sean Yoes

Jazz musician and impresario Todd Barkan has brought world class Jazz back to Baltimore.

By Sean Yoes

There was a surreal scene in the swanky Harbor East community over the Memorial Day weekend.

Billy Murphy, the legendary defense attorney was holding court outside of a new nightclub with a group of other men, still buzzing after witnessing a world class jazz performance by Baltimore native Cyrus Chestnut.

What most don’t know about Murphy the iconic lawyer is that he is not just a jazz aficionado, he is an outstanding Jazz drummer; he really knows this music, the only organically American art form. And it has been decades since Murphy and other true lovers of the music have been serenaded by a Jazz titan like Chestnut in a club setting in Baltimore.

The wait is over, Keystone Korner has arrived.

“It was like a fait accompli, it’s like destiny,” said Todd Barkan, programming director/executive director of the Keystone, which opened in April. Barkan’s odyssey from Jazz pianist to co-owner of the Keystone Klub in Baltimore, began almost 50 years ago in Northern California. He purchased the original Keystone Klub in the North Beach community of San Francisco in 1972 and operated it until 1983.

“I built Keystone Korner into an internationally famous place, that had many famous live recordings; Rahsaan Roland Kirk, McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Art Blakey, Wynton Marsalis, all recorded live there,” Barkan said. Subsequently, Barkan opened Keystones in Oakland, Calif., and Tokyo.

Keystone Klassic: A classic 1975 marquee picture from the original Keystone Korner in San Francisco.

From the establishment of Keystone as a beacon for the Jazz world, Barkan moved on to New York as program director for Jazz at Lincoln Center from 1999 to 2012.

In April 2018, he was awarded the National Endowment of the Arts, Jazz Master award, an honor Barkan describes as, “the highest award in jazz in our country…it’s like the Nobel Prize for jazz.” The bestowing of the Jazz Master award (the other winners that year were Pat Metheny, Dianne Reeves and Joanne Brackeen), on Barkan led to an encounter with the man who would become his partner in bringing the legendary Keystone to Baltimore.

“The night before the big concert and ceremony at the Kennedy Center we had an awards dinner…and the owner of the awards dinner restaurant, Marcel’s, was a guy named Robert Wiedmaier,” Barkan said. “Well, he and I met and struck up wonderful and fast friendship and we decided to do something together.”

Wiedmaier, who owns the RW Restaurant Group, is a Michelin Star restaurateur who owns several upscale eateries. He was the second element of the Keystone equation, which has allowed the Baltimore incarnation to become a club, in Barkan’s words, “featuring the best food in the world and the best music in the world.” Wiedmaier owned the Mussel Bar and Grille (which had been closed for over a year because of the extensive construction taking place within that neighborhood) at Harbor East, the space that ultimately became the Keystone Klub Baltimore.

Prior to crafting the Keystone Klub in Baltimore with Wiedmaier, Barkan had only had a tangential relationship with the city. He had played at the Left Bank Jazz Society decades ago and his last performance here was at Ethel’s Place, the city’s last world class Jazz club owned by the highly venerated daughter of Baltimore Ethel Ennis, who died in February. Perhaps, it is divine the reconfiguring of Wiedmaier’s restaurant into the Keystone began that same month.

“I’m going to build up the strongest and best jazz club I can,” Barkan said. “That’s the best thing I can do for Baltimore is to make this club…as successful as can humanly be. And in so doing I’m doing a solid for the people of Baltimore. I want them to be able to come here any week of the year and hear five-star music…the people of Baltimore deserve that.”

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

Sean Yoes

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Oakland Post: Week of August 12 – 18, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of August 12 – 18, 2026

Published

2 days ago

August 15, 2026

Oakland Post

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Art

Misty Copeland Shapes Ballet’s Tomorrow

THE POSITIVE COMMUNITY — Misty Copeland will curate the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival, a two-week event in New York City from August 4-16. This role allows her to influence the future of ballet by showcasing a wide range of dancers, choreographers, and companies. The festival will present both established and contemporary works, blending classical traditions with new artistic expressions.

Published

1 week ago

August 9, 2026

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Misty Copeland at the 2026 Met Gala, wearing fashion in theme of "Costume Art" Date 4 May 2026, 19:39:21

This summer, Misty Copeland will step into a different kind of spotlight. Instead of taking center stage as a dancer, she will help determine what audiences see onstage as curator of the 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival. Taking place August 4 through August 16 at The Joyce Theater in New York City, the two-week celebration will bring together dancers, choreographers and companies representing a broad spectrum of ballet. The festival gives Copeland an opportunity to share not only her appreciation for ballet’s traditions, but also her vision for its future.

Copeland understands better than most how powerful a ballet stage can be. Her historic career with American Ballet Theatre changed the conversation about representation in one of the world’s most traditional performing arts. When she became the company’s first Black woman to reach the rank of principal dancer, her achievement carried significance far beyond a personal milestone. It gave young dancers of color a new image of what was possible and challenged the industry to reconsider who belonged at the center of ballet.

That history informs the perspective she brings to the festival. Copeland has spent much of her career moving between performance, mentorship, advocacy and storytelling. Her curatorial role allows her to bring those interests together by creating a program that does not treat ballet as a museum piece. Instead, the festival presents dance as an evolving language capable of carrying classical traditions into new cultural and artistic territory.

Audiences will encounter a mixture of established works and contemporary creations during the festival. Classical ballet vocabulary will share space with choreography that pushes dancers toward different physical, emotional and theatrical possibilities. The result is intended to give audiences a broader understanding of the art form while demonstrating that tradition and innovation do not have to be competing forces.

The lineup also provides an opportunity to see dancers from different artistic environments. Performers connected to organizations including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Houston Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet are among those represented in the festival. Each company carries its own history and artistic identity, making their participation part of a larger conversation about the many ways ballet can be performed and interpreted.

The presence of Dance Theatre of Harlem is particularly meaningful within the larger story of Copeland’s career and the evolution of Black representation in ballet. Founded during a period when opportunities for Black dancers were severely limited, the company helped demonstrate that excellence and classical training could flourish in a Black cultural environment. Its legacy continues to influence dancers and audiences, making its connection to a festival curated by Copeland especially resonant.

The program also reaches beyond a single definition of contemporary ballet. Choreographers with different backgrounds and artistic philosophies contribute to an evening that can move from recognizable classical structures to works shaped by modern dance, theater, popular culture and new approaches to movement. That diversity reflects a generation of artists who increasingly see ballet not as a rigid vocabulary but as a foundation from which they can explore.

For New York audiences, the festival offers something that is increasingly valuable: the opportunity to experience outstanding dancers in an intimate setting. The Joyce is known for presenting dance in a theater where audiences can see movement and artistry up close. That environment can make a familiar ballet work feel newly personal while allowing experimental pieces to communicate with unusual immediacy.

Copeland’s role as curator also sends a message about the importance of artistic leadership. The people who select performers and choreography help determine which stories receive attention and which artists receive opportunities. By bringing a range of voices into the festival, Copeland is using that responsibility to broaden the conversation around ballet. Her choices can introduce audiences to artists they may not otherwise encounter while encouraging longtime ballet followers to look at the form from a different perspective.

The 2026 Joyce Ballet Festival ultimately arrives at an important moment for the art form. Ballet is carrying centuries of tradition into an era defined by changing audiences, broader representation and increasingly adventurous choreography. Copeland’s festival reflects that transition. For two weeks in August, The Joyce will become a meeting place for the familiar and the unexpected—a celebration of where ballet came from and a preview of where it may be going. And with Misty Copeland helping shape the conversation, the future of ballet promises to be as expansive as the dancers who are defining it.

Based on reporting by The Positive Community.