The great VISION FESTIVAL, NYC 2025

Such a Line-Up over Six Evenings and Nights! The VISION never stops, as its sources never stop.

Jun 01, 2025

June 1, 2025

The great VISION FESTIVAL of improvising musicians, dancers, poets and visual artists in New York City is now just one day from happening.

2025 is the VISION’S 29th incarnation. It still GROWS out of origins with PATRICIA NICHOLSON PARKER and WILLIAM PARKER and their Art for Arts wellspring. This year the Festival honors ROSCOE MITCHELL with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

The six Evenings and Nights of performance and interaction take place at the ample Roulette venue at 509 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Monday June 2 thought Saturday June 7. Every Evening and Night features a LOADED Line-Up.

Please check out the VISION’s Website—

And you can check each Evening and Night in detail through TERRILL HANNA’S URBAN MUSIC SCENE website HERE.

Monday, June 2

Tuesday, June 3

Wednesday, June 4

Thursday, June 5

Friday, June 6

Saturday, June 7

Without naming names and intrinsically creating hierarchies, let me say that this year’s VISION includes MANY of the most illustrious and illuminating, creative musicians alive.

Let me also drop in three excerpt from the promotion sent out by JIM EIGO for this year’s Festival.

And—

And—

Hurrah, then, and Hallalujah, for the VISION Festival and its 29th offering!

This Post closes with music from William Parker that was inspired by the unforgettable activist FANNIE LOU HAMER and by the painter JOHANNES VERMEER—and by a conversation with MARYSE PHILIPPE DEJEAN, my wife, last week. I asked Maryse who she might want to profile among five people whom she admired in any Public Sphere. We were at breakfast. Thoughts sometimes lag over breakfast. “Fannie Lou?” I asked. Maryse’s eyes widened. “How did you know that?” she said. “Well, I know Fannie Lou is among those you admire most, and I’ve been thinking about her, and William’s piece inspired by her, a lot over the past week. You remember how William spoke about her in that interview for our “Spiritual as Music” profile?” “Of course,” Maryse said, “and I remember the music!”

From Hour One with William Parker (Hour 15 in the “Spiritual as Music” series over on that unwieldy We Are Revolutions website):

‘10:47 Interview proper begins with William talking about a protest-march that a Liberation band begun years ago by Patricia Nicholson Parker has just finished this Saturday, November 17, 2018. The march round Lower Manhattan protested Trump Administration's moves against immigrants of color. William also talks about the Vision Festival and other efforts for creative arts in New York City that Patricia and he keep moving forward. He says that he's been political since he "first became aware" of major events such as Bobby Seale's being chained and gagged in the Courtroom of Chicago Judge Julius Hoffman. William cites Fannie Lou Hamer as one who spoke inspiring truths to power.

13:30 Excerpt from PBS' --American Experience-- documentary about Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony at the Democrats' 1964 Convention. Fannie Lou Hamer so alarmed President Lyndon Baines Johnson that he called a Press Conference to distract Networks' coverage from her speech. The pretext for LBJ's Press Conference that August 22 of 1964 was the nine-month anniversary of John Connelly being shot during the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The what? The nine-month anniversary?’