Come ready to dance when Endea Owens and The Cookout headline the UAB Center for the Arts Block Party on Friday, Oct. 3, on the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.
Eat, drink and dance at the UAB Arts Block Party, a night of music, art and community, featuring vibrant emerging jazz artists Endea Owens and The Cookout.The UAB Center for the Arts Block Party, a night of music and celebration, is the biggest community event of the season for UAB’s nonprofit arts organizations the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, ArtPlay Community Education and Arts in Medicine.
The evening kicks off at 5 p.m. The party will take place on 10th Avenue South, which will be closed to traffic between 12th and 13th streets South. Enjoy activity tables, gallery talks with artists, food trucks, vendors and more, followed by a live performance from Endea Owens and The Cookout.
Known for her powerhouse bass playing and joyful, genre-blending sound, Owens is bringing her high-energy band to Birmingham for a concert that is as soulful as it is uplifting. The Cookout delivers a feel-good experience that invites everyone to the table. Plus, tickets for this performance are Pay What You Choose, which allows you to decide how much to pay for this performance. Simply select the amount that works best for you when reserving your ticket, no questions asked. The suggested ticket price is $15 for adults and $10 for children. Reserve tickets at AlysStephens.org.
Arts members can enjoy complimentary hors d’oeuvres and beverages in the members lounge, open from 5-7:45 p.m. Join and learn more about membership perks at alysstephens.org/support/membership.
The AEIVA galleries will be open with a new exhibition, “Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin‑Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art,” featuring more than 40 works from one of the nation’s most celebrated private contemporary art collections. This nationally traveling exhibition highlights established and emerging artists of African descent from the past 35 years, offering a vibrant range of voices, ideas and approaches.
Owens, a Detroit-raised recording artist, bassist and composer, has toured and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross, Rhonda Ross, Solange, Jon Batiste, Jazzmeia Horn, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Steve Turre, to name a few. In 2018, Owens graduated from The Juilliard School and joined “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as a member of the house band, Stay Human. Since then, she has won Emmy, Grammy and George Foster Peabody awards. Her work has appeared on Jon Batiste’s Grammy Award-winning album “We Are,” in the Oscar-nominated film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” and H.E.R.’s widely acclaimed Super Bowl LV performance. In 2020, Owens founded the Community Cookout, a nonprofit organization that provides meals and music to underserved neighborhoods in New York City. She is curator for the National Arts Club and a fellow for “Jazz is Now!” with the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Her debut album “Feel Good Music” was released in early 2023.