Billy Strayhorn: Unsung Jazz Great, African Diaspora International Film Festival

Beth Comstock joins us to talk about her newest book, Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change. The book offers advice on how to grapple with the challenges to change we face every day. Comstock shares her own transformation story from introverted publicist to GE’s first woman vice chair, and her hard-won lessons in shifting GE, a 125-year old American institution, toward a new digital future and a more innovative culture. 

Choreographer, writer, director, and filmmaker, David Roussève, (at 21:28) joins us to discuss his new production, “Halfway to Dawn,” a dance-theater piece about the jazz composer and arranger, Billy Strayhorn. The production explores how Strayhorn, an openly gay black man living in Harlem in the 1940’s, 50s, and 60s, chose anonymity over fame. “Halfway to Dawn” makes its New York debut as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival from December 5-8.

Diarah N'Daw-Spech, (at 36:45) co-director of the African Diaspora International Film Festival, and Maurice Carney, the co-founder and current executive director of Friends of the Congo, join us to discuss the 26th annual African Diaspora International Film Festival, which runs through December 9.