JCAL in March: Here's Our Lineup Of Events This Month
- March 5, 2025
JCAL has been a pillar of creativity in Jamaica Queens for over five decades. Our offerings include art classes, live music concerts, dance performances, theatre productions, studio rental space, and more. This month we have an exciting lineup of events such as our spoken word poetry night for Women's History Month, the opening reception for the "Free Your Mind" exhibit, and live music with our Thursday Night Jazz, and Riddim Section series. To view all we offer, check out the link below.
Join us for an exciting presentation of spoken word, storytelling, and dance to celebrate Women's History Month! Strength Courage and Wisdom 2025 will feature a fantastic lineup of artists and great vibes.
This year's special guest poet is the acclaimed Staceyann Chin. Chin is a spoken-word poet, performing artist, and LGBT rights political activist. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Pittsburgh Daily, and has been featured on 60 Minutes.
The theme is Wisdom. Spiritually, for many, wisdom is personified as a woman. Additionally, the lyrics of a song that was coined as a feminist Anthem in 1972, Helen Reddy's I Am Woman: "I am wisdom born of pain" celebrates the triumphs that women have experienced in spite of unfavorable social, political, and personal conditions. Pain can be struggles, challenges, physical, mental, or emotional but the lesson, the wisdom from that pain is our focus. The interpretation of pain is left up to the artist.
Poets/Storytellers: Renee Joshua-Porter, Cheryl "Mama Phife" Boyce Taylor, Tracey Irvin, Jasmine "JRose" Rosario, Keys Will (and dancer) Jaria Morris
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/strength-courage-wisdom-2025-tickets-1219564673769?aff=oddtdtcreator
Also come out to the opening reception of this highly anticipated group exhibit, curated by Shenna Vaughn!
Free Your Mind: The Expansion is not just an exhibition—it's a call to break free from the mental barriers that limit us. Building on the foundation of its predecessor exhibition, Free Your Mind, also mounted by JCAL in 2023, this iteration takes the transformative journey of creativity to new heights. It brings together a diverse group of artists who defy their own mental and creative limitations, demonstrating the power of liberation and the boundless possibilities that emerge when we free ourselves from self-imposed constraints.
If you like live music, don't miss this installment of JCAL's music series "Riddim Section", headlined by Javier Diaz!
Originally from Cuba, Javier Diaz is a percussionist and composer. He has performed with the NY Philharmonic, NY Pops, and Broadway productions of Tarzan, Guys and Dolls, The Wiz, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Rocky, Gloria Estefan’s On Your Feet, Once on This Island, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, Sweeney Todd, and The Who’s Tommy.
Soundtrack credits include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and collaborations with jazz greats David Sanborn and Marcus Miller.
Last, JCAL Art Classes are underway, but there is still time to register!
The lineup includes a refreshed array of offerings in Fashion Design, Musical Theater, Oil Painting, Cartooning, Animation, Piano, Storytelling, and much more.