CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS & ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

SUBMIT BOOK CHAPTERS TO professorsevans@gmail.com 

SUBMIT INTERVIEW REQUESTS TO kiplynprimus@gmail.com 

 In 2024, the radio station 91.9 WCLK celebrated 50 years as a community center of music in Atlanta, naming itself  “the jazz of the city.” This collection will gather historical and scholarly research as well as community narratives about the history and culture of jazz in Atlanta, Georgia. This collection brings together the long history of jazz from legendary concerts by Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitgerald at the City Auditorium in the 1940s to the establishment of cultural centers including WCLK, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Funk Jazz Café, Clark Atlanta University’s Jazz Under the Stars and the popular Jazz at the High series. In this collection, the leadership of WCLK will serve as a hub to preserve the legacy of jazz in the Peach State. The co-editors will gather academic research to archive our rich jazz legacy, we will document the people who created the culture, and we will celebrate the music, musicians, and artists of the southern-born genre of innovative American music that feeds the global soul.  

The Jazz of the City will combine academic research and oral history to offer both historical outlines and vivid narrative color. We invite scholars to shine a light on the details of jazz in Atlanta in all forms and fashions. We also invite individuals central to creating and honoring jazz culture to contribute their stories via oral history interview. Collectively, we will produce a collage of the diverse, broad, and complex portrait that defines this critical genre in our vibrant southern city.  

Scholars or artists who write/speak about jazz in Atlanta can include, but are not limited to:

Radio stations and the evolution of jazz over time

Atlanta City/Municipal Auditorium history 

Atlanta Jazz Festival

Music series

Funk Jazz Kafé

CAU Jazz Under Stars

Jazz at the High

Performance theatres and music venues 

Rialto Center for the Arts

Fox Theatre

Cobb Energy Centre

University or city jazz bands 

DJs and record stores

Artists, dancers, photographers, and playwrights

Atlanta administrators who have supported the arts

Newspapers, magazine, archives, library, or history center holdings about Atlanta jazz history

BOOK CHAPTERS: Submit scholarly chapters to Stephanie Evans. Abstracts or partial chapters will neither be accepted nor reviewed. Chapters must be between 3000-4500 words (10-15 pages, including bibliography). APA citation. Only complete, edited, original, and scholarship with robust citation will be accepted. Include 200-word bio of author(s). Co-authored chapters are encouraged.

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS: Send requests to be interviewed to Kiplyn Primus. Submit 500 words with details about your connection to Jazz in Atlanta. Note that a limited number of oral histories can be included in the published book, but may be collected for a digital archive. Interviews central to Atlanta jazz history will be prioritized.

QUESTIONS: Email professorsevans@gmail.com with subject line Jazz of the City. 

Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans is a Professor of Black Women’s Studies (WGSS and AAS) at Georgia State University. Her research focus is intellectual history, mental health, and wellness. She is author of four books, including Black Passports: Travel Memoirs as a Tool for Youth Empowerment (2014) and Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (2007). She is lead co-editor of five books, including African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education (2009). She is the 2025-2026 National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians.   

Kiplyn Primus hosts The Local Take With Kiplyn Primus, heard Saturday mornings at 7a on WCLK. Primus is a graduate of Howard University and Clark Atlanta University and has a long career in public and commercial media. She is a veteran facilitator for StoryCorps' Atlanta studio and has written extensively on global and local initiatives for a number of publications.

Wendy Williams is currently the general manager of the number one Jazz station in the Southeast, Jazz 91.9 WCLK. Wendy’s career in broadcasting spans more than 36 years covering both commercial radio and television, as well as nonprofit public radio and encompassing formats including hard-hitting news, country, and jazz music. Williams’ decisive and steady leadership at WCLK for the past 27 years has helped to earn WCLK a solid reputation as a world class jazz radio station. 

Jamal Ahmad is an award winning syndicated on-air personality who has served Jazz 91.9 WCLK for over 30 years. Jamal says when he began as a 20 years old junior at Morehouse College junior, “jazz became my ministry.” He hosts the S.O.U.L. of Jazz (Sounds of Universal Love) and is a producer/member of The DangerFeel Newbies.

Dr. Curtis D. Byrd is CEO and co-founder of Academic Pipeline Project (APP) and has served as a guest DJ and voice over artist for WCLK. Prior to APP, he served as the  Special Advisor to the Provost at Georgia State University as well as the Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies and Sr. Associate Director of Graduate Enrollment at Clark Atlanta University. He is the lead singer of the Mooky Byrd Band and was a radio DJ throughout college.