Thelonious Monk’s Family Picks Up Beat

The pandemic is not stopping Marcella Monk Flake from spreading the joys of music.

Flake has won a $4,999 Connecticut Humanities’ ​“Quick October Grant” grant. The grant will support her organization, Monk Youth Jazz and Steam Collective Inc., run a special event for students and families.

(Buy tickets here.)

“We have a scholarship program,” Flake said of the Dec. 13 event. “Anyone who wants to attend can.”  Hundreds are expected.

Titled Monk 103, the event nods to what would have been the legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk II’s 103rd birthday this year. Flake is a relative of Monk; her father and Monk were first cousins. “I grew up, you know, just excited about the fact that I was related to Thelonious Monk, that I was a Monk and everything that that meant,” said Flake.

(You can read more about the Monk family’s longtime New Haven work here, here, and here. )

Monk 103 will have two main parts: a series of five mini-documentaries on Monk’s life and a live panel for Q&A. The panel will be moderated by Bonnie Johnson, a radio host in Worcester, Mass., and feature Thelonious Sphere Monk III; Dr. Nicole Ivy, an associate professor of American Studies; Wayne Escoffery, a New Haven-raised Grammy award winning tenor saxophone player; and Dr. Robin D.G Kelley, a biographer of Thelonious Monk.

Flake and her husband Dudley spoke about the event during an outdoor Downtown interview. Her clear voice rang out amidst the sounds of traffic and birds chirping. Marcella answered most of the questions; Dudley would pause to fill in some gaps. Over the hour-long interview, it was clear the Flakes have put their heart and soul into the program.

“This particular event came as a result of Covid-19. You know, we had to rethink what we were doing; we couldn’t go into schools,” Marcella said. Annual concerts at Woolsey Hall and Arya were cancelled; those were the nonprofit’s main events and fundraisers. 

“A group of our friends and Thelonious started meeting with us on Saturday mornings on Zoom,” said Flake. They discussed how to ​“bring a culturally-relevant event to the community that would really inspire people and bring people together in such a divisive political climate.”

They settled on Monk 103, which is geared toward both adults and kids. ​“We have a DJ coming from New York who’s going to open and close the show,” said Flake. She chuckled. ​“And that’s hopefully for the young people, to appease the young people.” After the main panel discussion, a group of children will be able to have a smaller discussion with the panelists.

Monk 103 is the latest in a string of programs created by the Monk Youth Jazz team. Flake and her husband have been creating programs since 2011, she said, ranging from music performances at Woolsey Hall to a medicine shadowing program at hospitals for students.

Pendleton King, a medical student who attends Co-Op high, still remembers the day Flake and TS came into his school. It was the ​“greatest day in my high school career. [I had] the freedom to be a musician, unlock my full potential and play,” he said.

He expected that this event would ​“allow students to look at music differently, with a creative eye and mentality.”

Tyler Brown, meanwhile, is a sixth-grade student who loves to play the drums. He’ll be attending the event, he said, and might ask the panel how to be successful in music. Since TS visited his school, he’s been learning to improvise and ​“play whatever I want,” which has led him to write his first song.

“The Monk family and everything they’ve touched has had a positive impact on a lot of different students and schools in New Haven,” said Pat Smith, the band teacher at Co-Op.

Beating Polarization

Beyond jazz, the event has a larger purpose – to bring people together.

“You know, jazz musicians — and musicians in general — have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to race relations,” said Flake. Monk used jazz throughout his life as a way to connect with people, Flake explained. For example, he was once hired by a white high schooler in Palo Alto to play at his high school. Before that, Flake said, no white or Black people were in an audience together.

“This was 1968,” added Dudley.

“People didn’t believe that Thelonious was going to show up, [but] he was there,” said Flake. ​“The Blacks were empowered to go to the white side of town and even if for just an afternoon, it broke down racial barriers.”

Besides covering Theolonious’ life, the event aims to create a ​“dialogue about race relations in a non-threatening way,” Flake said. ​“I think people are defensive. It takes a very open minded [person], someone who’s not a person of color, to acknowledge that systemic racism is real.”

“The plantation where my great-grandfather was held until he was 13 is still standing in North Carolina,” she added. ​“I’ve met the great-great grandson of the people who enslaved my ancestors. And I see that they have hundreds and hundreds of acres of land that’s not been shared, that’s been gained on the backs of my answers. The remnants of slavery — we see it all the time.”

Marcella was a teacher for 37 years, interacting with thousands of students. When she talked about racism in the Constitution in her fourth-grade class, she recalled, one little girl said something shocking.

“She said to me, ​‘My father said that Black people were better off when they were slaves. They had everything they needed: food, clothes. And they just lost their mind when we set them free.’” Flake cleared her throat. ​“And I’m looking at that little teeny [girl] that I love and I said, ​‘Sweetie, but look at me.’”

Marcella looked up. ​“Those [attitudes] are alive and well in this city and in this world,” shesaid.

“Polarization is really easy,” said Dudley. ​“Because all you have to get someone to understand or believe is that the other person is not like you. That’s all.”

“That’s a conversation that, once people get to know other people, they might be a little more ready to have,” said Flake. ​“But with music …”

Dudley spoke up. ​“It’s a thing that you can understand as an individual. [It] doesn’t have anything to do with your group. ​“When you look at the Palo Alto concert, that’s the sense that people had as they went to that gymnasium.”

“I’m hoping that people will look at how divided America once was, and how something as simple as man’s music could bring people together,” concluded Marcella. ​“That’s pretty much the goal of the event, just to get people talking and understanding that history.”