Burlington Discover Jazz Festival managing director Chelsea Lafayette posted March 4 on Facebook that she was leaving the job she has held for five years. She drew her post to a close with a devastating reflection on what the past year in the arts world has been like.
“To performing artists, my colleagues here in Burlington, festival staffers, production teams, and creators of the shared experiences that bring our communities together all over the world: give yourselves permission to feel your own personal trauma as well as the trauma of witnessing the decimation of our industry,” Lafayette wrote. “It broke a lot of us. It broke me.”
San Mateo s Matt Hagen (left) and Matt Burr Greetings, music lovers. Apologies for not having a quippy headline to start things off. You see, I ve written and rewritten this section so many times, including its head, because nothing feels right. I desperately want to be something like a cheerleader at the big homecoming game who just did an espresso enema. I want to shout, Ho ho, hey hey, everything s going to be OK! But it s feeling really hard to muster that kind of manic
Bring It On enthusiasm when, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we re staring down the barrel of almost 400,000 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. Oh, and violent insurrection at the national Capitol.