Janis Lane-Ewart has dedicated her life to cultural activism and community service. Late last year Janis was honored with a prestigious Sally Award. The Sallys are named for Sally Ordway Irvine, and they celebrate individuals and institutions that strengthen and enrich Minnesota with their commitment to the arts and arts education. Janis received the award for Commitment.
Janis was born and raised in Chicago. She moved to Minneapolis in the late 1980s. She was executive director of KFAI – Fresh Air Community Radio - for 12 years, where she also produced the longstanding jazz show, The Collective Eye. She currently is the development officer for jazz station KBEM.
You can find the full KAXE/KBXE audio interview with Janis Lane-Ewart and Maggie Montgomery (who have known each other as colleagues for many years) below, but here are some highlights:
When asked to talk about what in her life led to receiving the Sally Award, Janis said, “Growing up in Chicago there were lots of opportunities to experience live music. Once I ventured into the arena of actually seeing artists within my community coming together to produce their own performances, I wanted to make sure they were connected to nonprofit organizations that could present them on a larger scale. It really opened my eyes to the level of engagement that it lent to the performing artist as well as those of us who were audience members - those of us who had no clue what it would take to actually produce a concert but could go and hear the music, be enveloped in the stories and traditions that are associated with live music.
“For me it made a transformational change. I couldn’t walk away from the creativity and what each individual musician/artist/composer was giving back to the community to keep our tradition alive.”
The church also played a role as Janis was growing up. “While the main artistic expression was through the choir – there weren’t instruments in the church at the time I was coming up – it was a good lead-in to what I’m doing now, where I’m immersed in all forms of the arts. Particularly, jazz has taken most of my heart, so to speak, and particularly knowing that it’s a form of music where it’s sometimes very unpredictable – which is similar to life. It’s presented a platform upon which I feel comfortable in being for and with community.”
Pre-Covid-19 Janis attended at least 2 or 3 live jazz performances a month, “depending on the accessibility of my bank account at the time,” she laughs. “At the same time I recognized the supporting of specific institutions where you have to become a member and receive a discount for the cost of admission. That moved me to another place where I was attending more performances regularly. Particularly artists that were coming from other places that I’d rarely get to see. I would make every effort to manage my budget to be able to enjoy what they have to offer, but also make sure that they recognized they were being supported. The feeling of being a performer and going into a gig and there’s seating for 25 and there are 12 people can be disconcerting. Of course professionals learn to live with that and don’t judge what they contribute by the number of people in the audience. But I figured if I could help make a difference as one person I would do my best to do so.”
These days, Janis’ ability to attend jazz performances has been curtailed. Covid-19 has taken a toll on local venues and live performances. “It’s given me a new perspective because now I continue to receive messages about performances that are captured through a Zoom mechanism. And while there are no live people in the space where the musicians are performing, they’re giving their all to the medium in which they’re engaged because they know that someone – and lots of someones at this juncture, with the changes that have taken place – will take the time to go on a website and see a full performance. They know there’s not an actual live audience there but you as the person viewing it online don’t really get that sense because the band is giving you their all. They are treating the experience as though you are right there in the room with them. It was an adjustment. However, recognizing the circumstances that we’re all managing, I’d rather that than no music.”
Janis Lane-Ewart fell in love with jazz while a student at Northwestern University. The library there allowed students to listen to record albums. She remembers finding an album cover that was particularly colorful and included African symbolism. “When I put it on the turntable it was so different from anything I’d ever listened to that I turned it over, played the 2nd side, and then I went back to the first because it was so unique. The artist was Pharoah Sanders, who is a well-beloved reed player who plays just about all the wind instruments. He had different tones and sounds and a different experience with each composition that was on the record.
“I found myself going back to the library to study every week thereafter and finding a new recording, introducing myself to something completely unheard of in my home. And it led me down this road.”
Janis lives mere blocks from where George Floyd was killed by police. When asked how this has affected her Minneapolis neighborhood, she said, “One of the joyful elements of this very tragic incident is that it has helped our neighbors on each block come together and put together mechanisms by which we now have watch shifts. We now have each neighbor having contact information on everyone on their side of the block should something untoward take place. There is a person who is designated each day to be the watchperson and to alert neighbors if there is something untoward happening.
“I’ve seen the coming together of people that I would see going into their garage or wave at them when they’re going into their house. But now we really have a sense that together we can ensure that we have the comfort of safety. We are building relationships that are now based on some of the closeness of being near Chicago Avenue where most of the activity was taking place, but knowing at night that that was not the case. We need to stand together in the instance that something unexpected happens.
“It’s been a growing period in a time when I didn’t expect that to happen. We’ve had National Night Out every year and people come out. Yet that wasn’t the mechanism that built us into now – this sense of ‘person-to-person looking out for each other’ kind of community experience. It’s different.”
You can listen to the full interview with Janis Lane-Ewart below.
