The seeds for McQueen’s idea were sown when he was filming the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave, and failed to find what he referred to as an “institution of significance” dedicated to African American music in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. “A similar experience happened to me when I was making Widows in Chicago,” he recalls, having expected to find such a place in the birthplace of rock’n’roll. So when Alex Poots approached McQueen after being designated as artistic director and CEO of The Shed—a center dedicated to performing arts, visual arts and pop culture, in the newly developed Hudson Yards—a little over two years ago, McQueen presented his concept of a series of performances that would illustrate the development of African American music.
