A Juneau jazz musician canceled a show that was meant to be a part of a festival in town this week. The show was advertised as a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska, but the organization who planned the festival said it didn’t agree to that.
Spencer Edgers plays the saxophone with other local musicians in the Dream Band. Local nonprofit Juneau Jazz and Classics tapped his band to play a show during its annual Jazz Fest in town.
But recent national events — like immigration enforcement ramping up efforts and shooting civilians — led him to decide to approach this show differently.
“Knowing I had this show coming up, I personally felt uncomfortable promoting a show taking up bandwidth on the internet during a time where people are sharing resources and looking out for each other,” Edgers said.
So Edgers decided to make the show a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska. The rest of his band were on board, and he cleared it with the venue — the Alaskan Hotel & bar — which was paying the band.
“The plan was to have our tip jar, pass it around to people,” he said. “The tip jar was going to go to the organization.”
He also planned to pass around flyers with links to report immigration enforcement activity, and resources for forming safety plans. But Edgers didn’t clear it with Juneau Jazz and Classics. He said the organization hadn’t really been communicating about the event.
“I assumed that they would not have a problem with it,” he said. “And did not seek the consent for that collaboration.”
Edgers said festival leadership called him and expressed concerns about bringing politics into the festival. But Interim Director Alex Serio said fear of political pushback was not part of their concerns.
“This went to the board,” he said. “And the board decided that we’ve never had any outside fundraisers before.”
Serio said the board also expressed frustration at not being informed of the fundraising aspect. But if Edgers chose to ask for donations for the ACLU on stage, and not in advertising, that would have been his right.
“Everybody has freedom of speech,” Serio said. “Everybody can voice what they believe in, and we respect that.”
But the organization’s board didn’t want their branding on the same poster that advertised an ACLU fundraiser, Serio said.
“We just didn’t want the two of them together saying that we formally endorse an outside fundraiser,” he said.
So the board asked Edgers to remove its logo from the poster, but said he could carry on with the show.
“I think the board hoped that there would be a compromise, that he would still be able to ask people, and he would still play,” Serio said. “We could still include community members, but he decided to do it independently, and we totally support that.”
But Edgers said continuing without the organization’s support didn’t feel right and he canceled the performance.
“I would have not felt good about compromising my values in this way,” he said. “I would not have felt good with going through with it.”
Edgers posted about the cancellation on his personal Facebook account, and the post garnered dozens of comments, some from local musicians and artists in support of his decision and admonishing the organization’s decision.
Edgers said he understands he sprung the change on Juneau Jazz and Classics at the last minute, and said he plans to communicate earlier in any future shows.
But he also wants the board to consider the organization’s role in the Juneau community — and that protest is inherent to jazz.
“One of the things I encouraged them to do is to reflect on the history of the music and the nature of it,” Edgers said. “And how it was born out of adversity and originated basically as protest music.”
Serio says Juneau Jazz and Classics plans to have conversations about that history more in the coming months.
The Dream Band still plans to hold a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska sometime in March.
Disclosure: KTOO Morning Host Mike Lane sits on the Juneau Jazz and Classics board and was not involved in producing this story.
