Each year, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebrates national Black History month with a series of special events and programming.
Highlights from the past 20 years include conversations with artists such as Solomon Burke, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Ruth Brown, Al Green, Bobby Womack, Bootsy Collins, Chuck D, Rahiem, and Little Anthony and the Imperials.
This year’s festivities kick off on Feb. 10 with a performance by blues/pop singer Valerie June [pictured], who performs at 8 p.m.
At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, the Rock Hall presents the lecture “Hip Hop 2020: Where It started + Where It’s been + Where It’s Going” in Foster Theater. Radio, DJ, and production experts will discuss the development and growth of hip-hop over the last four decades. The event will also include short DJ sets by DJ Yulissa, DJ RoadRunner, DJ Ellery, DJ Walk, & Corey Grand.
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, the Rock Hall will screen Take Me to the River, a feature film celebrating the inter-generational and inter-racial musical influence of Memphis in the face of pervasive discrimination and segregation. Following the screening, director/producer Martin Shore, Hall of Fame Inductee Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, Grammy-award winning producer Boo Mitchell [“Uptown Funk”], Academy Award-winning rapper Frayser Boy [“It’s Hard out here for a Pimp”], 2017 Grammy nominee Bobby Rush, and Critics Choice-winning rapper Al Kapone will participate in a panel discussion.
On Sunday, Feb. 26,
the Rock Hall will celebrate the 89th birthday of 1986 Inductee Fats Domino by showing The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock N’ Roll, a 90-minute documentary film that will play on loop all day in the Forest City/RMS Theater inside of the main exhibition hall.
And finally, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 3, Franc West and other Cleveland-based soul singers who have toured with national acts will play as part of a Winter Soul Concert. It takes place at 7 p.m.
Some events are ticketed. Consult rockhall.com for more info.
