Sunday, Sept 14, 2025 Akua Dixon, Cellist with Betty Neals, Poet

Akua Dixon is a trailblazing Cellist-Composer-Conductor-Educator who has been at the forefront of improvising string players since 1973. The first cellist ever to win the Downbeat Critics Poll, she is a multi-laureate of the National Endowment for the Arts and has been hailed as “amongst the treasures of contemporary jazz” (New Jersey Star Ledger). A world-touring artist, Akua has performed with legends including Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Ray Charles, and Lionel Hampton, while her string arrangements can be heard on Lauryn Hill’s five-time Grammy Award-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin’s Grammy-nominated A Rose Is Still a Rose.

Betty Neals, celebrated poet and truth-teller, captures pivotal moments of history through verse career. Her powerful portrayal of the Historic 1970 Vote — a turning point for justice and civil rights — was published in her acclaimed collection Spirit Weaving. With language that blends resilience, memory, and vision Neals honors the voices of the past while weaving them into the fabric of contemporary struggles for equality and hope.

Sunday LIVE & LIVESTREAM Sept 14, 2025 Akua Dixon, Cellist with Betty Neal, Poet

Soapbox Gallery, 636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY

$20 suggested donation for Live or Livestream. Click the button below for tickets