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Greetings Friends,


We hope that you are keeping well!



2025 was an exciting year, one of growth and transformation. Continuum Culture & Arts... 


--> presented 25 Soup & Sound events

--> inaugurated Transparency Series

--> launched Greenhouse, a new program that formed 6 new artist-led non-profit organizations, empowering artists and the field in the areas of music, visual art, poetry

--> released recordings by The Forest and The Julius Hemphill Stringtet

--> provided key support for the documentary film Take Me to Fendika by Cisco Bradley which won “Best Documentary” at the USA Africa Film Festival (Cannes) 

--> produced the NYC premiere screening of Take Me to Fendika, CD release concerts for The Forest, Hemphill Stringtet, and others

--> presented the first retrospective of the work of composer Julius Hemphill via a three-day mini-festival Black Composers Upsouth

--> provided key support for the production of ground-breaking audio recordings by The Forest with lone eagle, The Julius Hemphill Stringtet, Marty Ehrlich, James Ilgenfritz, and Chris Cochrane

--> continued our work in the communities, including many FLY! events in NYC and Seattle

--> presented performances and FLY! activities in underserved schools (and obtained an artist visa) for Mumbai-based sitar-player Megha Rawoot. (Megha also recorded and toured with Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes this year!) 

--> hosted a three-week COHAR artist retreat and produced performances resulting in a recording for saxophonist Maria Valencia (from Bogotá) 

--> provided logistical and fiscal conduit services for US tours and performances at Lincoln Center, UCLA, U of Arizona, Springfield College, Sonoma State—artists include composer Steve Dyer and others (South Africa), Chris Jonas (Santa Fe), The Forest and lone eagle, Jill Burton/Chris Cochrane, Maria Angelica Valencia (Colombia), Megha Rawoot (India) 

--> partnered with Impeller Press on publishing a book, Ancestral Performance Art, by Alissa Schwartz


and this is just the gist of it all! Thank you for being part of this amazing story.


Read/watch/listen more below, and check out what's in store for 2026! 


In 2026... 

We keep growing. With our budget more than tripling—from $80,000 in 2024 to nearly $200,000 in 2025, we plan to use this to expand in 2026 by hiring permanent staff and doubling our programming. 


We are: 

--> producing more performances featuring innovative, world-class artists via four series: Soup & Sound, Continuum Presents, The Transparency Series, and COHAR 

--> planning screenings of Take Me to Fendika on the West Coast 

--> expanding our Legacy program (stay tuned) 

--> growing Greenhouse by working with the newly formed organizations through the Greenhouse Creators’ Consortium 

--> partnering with Angel City Jazz Festival (Los Angeles); Low Income Housing Institute, Culture Works, and Wayward Music (Seattle); The Center at Orchard Hill (New Hampshire); Loove Annex, Greenwich House Music School, Brooklyn Free Spirits Festival, Ephemera Obscura (NYC); Impov Works (Troy); Impeller Press, Ropeadope, Outward Visions Inc., Boundless Progress Inc., and more 

--> recording and producing new works by JD Parran, DoYeon Kim, Alexis Marcelo, Andrew Drury


--> Soup & Sound series goes out of town!


Check out the UPCOMING SEATTLE EVENTS - February 19, DeYeon Kim/Andrew Drury and - save the date! June 4 - Jason Kao Hwang’s Human Rites Trio at the Wayward Music Series in Seattle

We cannot do it without you!


Your participation means the world to us. By helping us you are 

 --> giving people in historically marginalized communities around the US access to world-class artists for creative engagement 

--> providing employment and opportunities for artists

--> providing the means for artists to organize—forming 501(c)(3) organizations 

--> providing all kinds of other support for artistic projects 

--> and on and on... 


Our mission is artistic and social. 


We are reaching people in unique ways. We are manifesting a new model of what nonprofit organizations do and changing the field. We are making a difference.

     


Take Me To Fendika 

Continuum’s support was instrumental in the making of a - now - award-winning documentary film by first-time director Cisco Bradley, illuminating the vibrancy of Ethiopian traditional and innovative music and dance cultures at what has been called “the best venue in Africa”—Fendika. The film tells the story of how this vital place came into being, and how it continues to provide space for artists to invent and reinvent Ethiopian modernity in dialogue with global culture. It is also a story of arts hubs being demolished, of political and structural extermination and the arts and artists’ resilience in the face of these obstacles. 


The film has enjoyed great success and critical acclaim, garnering awards at many international festivals, including the Best Documentary USA Africa International Film Festival (Cannes). Continuum organized the New York premiere at the Anthology Film Archives, featuring the director in conversation with Ras Burnett, composer and musicologist,  Alystyre Julian, filmmaker, and audience Q&A.




In Fall, 2025 Continuum launched a new program to empower artists and provide platform and structure for their work   via the formation of nonprofit organizations.  The Greenhouse created six new 501(c)(3)s in partnership with Outward Visions, Inc. an organization which has helped incorporate and launch over 100 nonprofits for some of the most important jazz artists of the past 50 years. Continuum provided these services FREE OF CHARGE—participation came not only with full funding for all legal expenses and filing fees for the incorporation and exemption process, but also for ongoing professional consultation to help each entity launch all of their individual programs over their first six months. In addition, these six new entities launched the Greenhouse Creators’ Consortium in January, 2026 to develop projects through organic collective action. This is just the beginning!


Continuum was instrumental in the production of two   major albums released in 2025:

The Julius Hemphill Stringtet, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head)

The Forest, Coyote Makes a World (Ropeadope) - accompanied by a US tour
Check out the music here and watch the fantastic live performance clip by clicking the image below:


                                                                                    

The acclaimed concert series Soup & Sound comes to Seattle - Join us on Feb 19 at The Chapel! 


DoYeon Kim (gayageum, percussion, voice)/Andrew Drury (percussion, voice)


Formed in the Summer of 2025 the duo of rising star DoYeon Kim and native Seattlite Andrew Drury provides a platform for two visceral and pioneering musicians who channel Korean and radical percussion traditions. The performance will feature wide-ranging musical improvisations with embedded compositions that evoke chaos, order, catastrophe, and calm.


Continuum’s community-based program FLY! Returns to the Low Income Housing Institute in February to provide drumming workshops and interactive performance by DoYeon Kim and Andrew Drury.  This will be the fifth Year of the continued partnership with the organization. 

     


Any sized gift to Continuum Culture & Arts will make an impact, and we hope you will make the choice to partner with us! 


     

CONTINUUM CULTURE & ARTS PROMOTES THE CREATION OF INNOVATIVE, WORLD CLASS MUSIC WHILE SUPPORTING THE PEOPLE WHO CREATE IT AND THE CULTURE THAT SURROUNDS IT. OUR SCOPE IS LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL. SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR BIPOC AND OTHER OPPRESSED GROUPS OF PEOPLE IS ESSENTIAL TO OUR HUMANITARIAN VISION FOR ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL ACTIVITY. CONTINUUM IS A NON-PROFIT 501(C)(3) ORGANIZATION BASED IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

     
     

Our mailing address is: 292 Lefferts Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11225

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