How can Red Bank Count Basie find a bigger audience? Finding groups who have been ignored

RED BANK - Adriana Medina-Gomez has been thinking about what diversity and inclusion, in all their complexity, would actually look like.

She points out the U.S. embrace of Cinco de Mayo, which offers a surface level of inclusion to Mexican Americans, but notes that it's often celebrated with archaic stereotypes and incorrectly labeled as Mexican Independence Day.

Her job now is to go much deeper than that, bringing in audiences to the Count Basie Center for the Arts who might never visit the Red Bank cultural space otherwise. Medina-Gomez is an immigration paralegal who is now the center's director of community engagement.

When she and Adam Philipson, CEO of the Basie, first began talking about a community engagement role, Medina-Gomez said she “used to question whether the Basie could pull off cultural authenticity.”

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Philipson said the Basie has not always been welcoming to all people during its 97-year history. But in the past decade, the center's leaders have aimed to look inward and change aspects of its programming and operations.

Such changes have included inviting speakers for community conversations such as Dr. Cornel West, a philosopher whose work focuses on race, gender and class; increasing its educational programing to reach different groups of people; and looking to expand to a wider audience.

Before hiring Medina-Gomez in April, Philipson said, Basie leaders made a conscious decision as an entire organization to work to become more diverse and inclusive. “It’s not just a position; it’s an organization ready for that position,” he said, adding that the work should not fall on one person’s desk, but on everyone’s.

He said there’s a difference between checking a box for diversity and putting in the work to make an organization more diverse and welcoming.

“It’s great that a person might be hired to do some of this representational work and community conversation,” Philipson said. “But then I’m seeing other organizations where they don’t provide the resources, they’re not really wanting to change. And so, there are leaders that have assumed this position and are now leaving because they realize that they are not going to get the work done.”

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'That was so euphoric'

How can the Basie increase its diversity and inclusion?

Medina-Gomez was born in Mexico, but grew up in Queens and Red Bank. Her friends were from a diverse range of Latin American countries, including the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Guatemala.

She remembers attending a music festival in California, which she described as another world. The music played were songs from her parents' generation. They were songs she heard at parties in her friends' houses, songs by artists such as Enanitos Verdes, El Tri or Los Ángeles Azules.

“I was there for the nostalgia and the feeling of community that was happening," she said. "And that was so euphoric.”

She said she would love to see a cumbia band perform at the Basie and extend invitations to speakers like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She said she wants feedback from community members, who would otherwise need to travel to venues in places such as New York City to see their favorite artists.

“People here yearn for a bit of a getaway from everything that’s going on,” she said, noting that many people are juggling multiple jobs. “It rare when you see them in these spaces of just being and just enjoying.”

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But extending invitations to a more diverse array of artists is only half the work.

“You don’t want an artist to come here and only three people show up to see the artist. That’s not a good experience for anybody,” Philipson said. “But as you build the audience to support the level of artistry, then that’s when it starts to work.”

He said if artists have successful events at the Basie, word would spread among the artists’ acquaintances and it could result in more performances by artists of a similar genre.

He said the Vogel, the more intimate of the two event stages, is already experimenting with hosting a variety of diverse programming like a drag brunch.

Philipson pointed to the Basie’s jazz series, which now has a consistent lineup of a variety of jazz artists and a devoted audience. The theater is named after the jazz musician William James "Count" Basie, a Red Bank native.

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“We want to move to that space where when we announce a particular artist, the community is ready,” he said.

Medina-Gomez stressed that the Basie is looking to increase diverse programing for all communities and not just the Latino community. In addition to organizing a Latin dance party, her other priorities include the Basie’s Juneteenth events and community conversations, where people can gather and talk about a variety of social issues.

'It's OK to perform in a way that's comfortable'

What about the Basie’s educational programming?

When Medina-Gomez was growing up in the Latino community, the arts were something you did only if you came from money.

“If you’re lucky you get to do it, but it’s not something that you get to do for work,” she said. “Definitely not a career unless you have the money to invest.”

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A year before Medina-Gomez was hired, the Basie began its All Access Arts program. Samantha Giustiniani, senior director of education and outreach, described it as a broad program with a roster of classes within it.

Currently the Basie is running two classes that provide free arts education. The first class is Actos, a class targeting multilingual students, and the second class is a production class for adults with disabilities.

In Actos, students are encouraged to perform in whatever language they feel most comfortable, resulting in lines that reflect the mix of Spanish and English some students speak at home.

“I think just allowing the students the freedom to do that is a lot for them,” Giustiniani said. “I think it’s really just about telling them it’s OK to perform in a way that’s comfortable for them.”

The production class gives adults with disabilities a space to perform on stage “in a format that’s safe and accessible for them,” Giustiniani said.

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How will success to measured?

“My definition of success has changed,” Philipson said. “For me it’s more about the impact that we’re making, that we’re choosing to make that impact.”

Previously an audience of 50 people would not have been considered a success, but now it could be considered the start of something, he said.

“We’ll know we’ve succeeded when we’re called to conversations,” Philipson said. “When we are asked to provide resources.”

Medina-Gomez also finds success in changing conventions. She points to Cinco de Mayo, in which she sees restaurants using taco suits and sombreros to attract customers. In Mexico, the holiday is celebrated with formal parades and battle reenactments.

“The Basie did the responsible thing and consciously thought to think about what is Cinco de Mayo,” Medina-Gomez said about last year’s performance. “(The organization) brought a dance company that had a performance about what the Battle of Puebla was. That is culturally authentic. It represents our culture responsibly and respects our culture.”

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Red Bank Count Basie Center wants diversity to be more than words