508 Events

Demo Day on April 22

The 508 Park Project, an innovative outreach program, officially gets underway with “Demo Day” on Sunday, April 22 at noon. “Demo Day” will feature a small ceremony officially initiating the program, and then a demolition claw will dismantle 1900 Young, the site of the future amphitheater. For more information...

The 75th @ 508 on June 19th

On June 19th, 2012, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the June 1937 recording sessions, which included Robert Johnson. You can find the full list of performers who recorded during that month here.

Elijah Wald, author of Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues, will be speaking at 7:30 in the Sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church.

Wald describes his book this way “This book is an attempt to explore Robert Johnson, his music, and his place in blues history, but more than that it is a broad exploration of the whole history of blues, asking what it would look like if we thought of it as African-American popular music --which it was from about 1910-1960 -- rather than as a roots, folk style. In the process, I discuss not only the music, but also the world in which it thrived. I take two questions as my jumping-off place: Why was Johnson’s work all but ignored by the blues audience of his time, and why is he now considered the greatest figure in blues history?”

Watch this page for updates on our other plans for this historic date.