QNYC Event Highlight: A Full Day In Jamaica

Image Source: Eddie Allen

The timing is right to spend an afternoon and night in Jamaica and enjoy three live music performances and a play. On February 16, the Black Spectrum Theatre will start off the entertainment at 2pm with the St. Albans Baptist Church’s version of It’s Time To Take A Stand, a play about a time when segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation, humiliation and devastation were sweeping the nation. (There is a second show at 6 pm.) Meanwhile at 3:30 pm over at the Queens Central Library, the Eddie Allen Quintet pays tribute to such legendary trumpeters as Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis and Lee Morgan. There’s no time for a break in the action as Alex Blake brings his fusion of salsa, jazz, rock and roll, R&B, funk and soul to the York College Performing Arts Center at 7 pm. At 8 pm, die hards can head over to the Afrikan Poetry Theatre for Southside, a band that honors the tradition of Earth Wind & Fire, Parliament/Punkadelic, Chicago and U2. For those wanting to get a head start, on February 15, the Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn offers Stories of the African American Experience, a multi-media presentation exploring historical accounts of the middle passage, slavery, emancipation and history at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center at 7:30 pm.

Southside
Afrika Poetry Theatre
176-03 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica
Saturday, February 16
8pm – 11:30pm | $15

Alex Blake
York College Performing Arts Center
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd., Jamaica
Saturday, February 16
7pm – 9pm | $10/$20