Project Launching January 2026

For the last decade, I have been working as an urban planner and community strategist in Central Brooklyn. Much of my work, building on personal research completed during undergraduate and graduate studies, has involved less of the design of the built environment but a focus on the human experience. Professionally and through my own personal creative practice, I’ve been leading participatory research to inform investments for a healthier Central Brooklyn, collecting stories and narratives to demonstrate the importance of our neighbors having a sense of home, and bringing my community together around jazz to connect, share meals, and set intentions for the year ahead. Community is my art form, and I practice community through storytelling and making heart connections.    

Jazz : Community is an idea that has been brewing for the last year and a half. As my interest in jazz has grown, I began developing a theory that’s helped me make sense of the world. I see the world as poetic and it sounds like jazz: the horns of the buses, the chimes on the playgrounds, the drumming of laughter on the street corner. In 2024, I began hosting jazz nights with friends to bring together the synergies between what jazz sounds like and what my community feels like. The jazz nights were prototypes for me to explore what it would take to bring these two concepts together, and how I could learn from the principles (and history) of making jazz to developing a community jazz record. 

Jazz : Community is the project. It is a gathering where we pause to embody, create, and reflect on the mosaics of life in Central Brooklyn. Drawing on sentiments from contemporary and past sounds and the history of this art form, I’ll study the history of jazz to synthesize principles that reflect the art of community. During the first Jazz : Community project, a cohort of neighbors will be invited to reflect, connect, and create. The outcome is a community composed jazz project and a visual expression of what community feels like today. 

The project will layer research, community building, and storytelling to marry a sonic experience with the communal.

Stay tuned for more information on singning up for Cohort 1.