The Tastemaker explores the many lives of Carl Van Vechten, the most influential cultural impresario of the early twentieth century: a patron and dealmaker of the Harlem Renaissance, a photographer who captured the era’s icons, and a novelist who created some of the Jazz Age’s most salacious stories.

By Marc Rasbury   Last week, CBS aired the 50th Anniversary Special of the Beatles performing on the Ed Sullivan Show and that got me thinking about one of their songs as it pertains to what took place in the world of sports over the past couple of weeks.

“People ask is there any link between the Irish and African Americans,” said Nik Quaife, the director of communications at New York’s Irish Arts Center.

By Marc Rasbury There is not a person over the age of 15, who does not remember what they were doing around 8:45 am on the morning of September 11, 2001. That is when a large jumbo jet crashed into the World Trade Center Tower One. About 30 minutes later, a second plane crashed into…

By Marc “The Raz” Rasbury For nearly four months, Football fans had to endure the ever changing outlooks stemming from various media outlets regarding the status of the NFL Lookout situation.

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz — but only a handful of people had ever heard even the…