Peabody Jazz faculty artists Nasar Abadey and Richard D. Johnson play an improvisational jam session showcasing the evolution of Black musical history as part of “Rent Party”: African American Urban Dance Music from Ragtime to House, the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts’ 2024 Donald Bentley Annual Memorial lecture. Columbia University professor Shana Redmond—author of the 2022 Irving Lowens Book Award from the Society for American Music, Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robseson—discusses the philosophical and symbolic significance of the Rent Party, followed by a music and dance performance that pays homage to the dynamic tradition.

The free event takes place April 18 at 6:30 pm at the Baltimore Museum of Art and registration is required.