May 22th, 2009

Who: DiverseArts Culture Works in collaboration with participating East End Businesses
What: Live music, food, vending, and kids programming at East End Fourth Fridays!
Where: Kenny Dorham's Backyard, 1106 East 11th Street Austin, TX 78702
When: May 22nd Gates OPEN at 6PM
Cost: Free children’s activities from 6 to 8PM. $5 cover for the live music beginning at 8PM (no charge for children under 12)
 

DiverseArts welcomes the Blue Bloods as our featured performers this month. The Blue Bloods have collectively worked with national artists and established themselves as great talents around the country. Their band includes Daddy-I on lead guitar and vocals, John Marcus on vocals and guitar, Mario on drums and vocals, James Jones on bass guitar, George Pettus on keyboards and vocals, and Robby Edward on the saxophone.

The Kenny Dorham Youth Jazz Workshop - Kelvin Stewart Group will begin the live music for the evening with a jam session. They are a group of standout young musicians from local area high schools and other special guest performers. The Word/Jazz Low Stars will also return this Friday with free verse and spontaneously composed jazz pieces.

Children will have free activities just for them at the East End Fourth Friday Kid’s Corner including free books, hot dogs, an arts and crafts table, and more. This May the Kid’s Corner will include special guest, Penelope Foolish the Clown. Penelope will be providing entertainment and fabulous balloon animals for the kids.

As always, we will have barbeque, refreshments courtesy of Live Oak Brewery, and live music. Local art vendors, including Cynthia Brown, Gretchen Grimm, and Kathy Sahagian, will be displaying and selling their beautiful art. We invite you to explore the East End and discover some of the new businesses and old favorites that help make this district a unique and diverse place in Austin.

Austin’s East End Fourth Fridays! is a unique art and culture-driven, monthly community-oriented event developed by DiverseArts to showcase the very specific cultural attributes and historical identity of Austin’s East End – the Soul in the heart of the City. The East End has been recognized by the City of Austin as an African American Cultural Heritage District, and East End Fourth Fridays! helps showcase this cultural legacy for the benefit of the community. In partnership with neighborhood artists and businesses, cultural, civic, commercial, and governmental groups, this monthly event is designed to bring a relaxed, communal, open air art and culture experience to the newly revitalized East End. 

It's an open house in the East End and along East 11th Street! Sample food and drink at established and new venues, take in the headline concerts and bring the kids to enjoy the East End Kid’s Corner at Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, and check out art vendors, organizations, and sponsors doing PR and public outreach. DiverseArts wishes to bring visitors from the neighborhood and the Austin area to see the unique cultural and historic aspects of the East End. We hope to establish East End Fourth Fridays! as a holistic, community-based marriage of culture and commerce, and we can't do it without your support! So come and join us, your fellow Austinites, and people from all places, for this monthly event!

So come out and join us for a great performance by the Blue Bloods and special guest, Penelope Foolish the Clown!

We'll see you there!