Promoting inclusivity and diversity in the arts with Regina Bain

Regina Bain: When you don’t know something. Rely on your values for your decision making.

Lee Wochner: Against the backdrop of a startling time in the global economy and a shocking death spiral for so many performance spaces around the nation, Regina Bain did the unimaginable: She opened a performance center.

Today, the Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the newly opened Louis Armstrong Center, covers the legacy of the jazz legend, shares her insights on creating inclusive and welcoming arts spaces, and helps us understand:

What it s like building and opening an important new performance space in the heart of a residential community. Why it’s important to welcome diverse experiences in the art. And how to market joy. All on this episode of “That’s What C! Said!”

Jaclyn Uloth:
Welcome to the podcast that lightens the tension when things sort of get hard…
That’s What C! Said, the Counterintuity podcast, featuring interviews with leaders and doers who have helped to make our world a better place through their actions — and especially through marketing, communications, and embracing change. Here’s host Lee Wochner.

Lee Wochner:
Our guest today is Regina Bain, an artist and educator serving as the executive director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, New York, which pays tribute to America’s first black popular music icon, and one might say movie icon as well. The museum preserves his home and archives and develops programs grounded in the values of artistic excellence, education, and community. This summer, She opened the new 14,000 square foot Lewis Armstrong Center, a state of the art performance community and education center with a 75 seat performance space and this 60,000 piece Armstrong archives, the largest archives of any jazz musician and one of the largest of any black musician. In her previous role, she helped grow the reach of the Posse Foundation for college access and leadership. Ms. Bain is co-chair of culture at Three’s anti-racism subcommittee and recently served on the Yale board of governors. Ms. Bain earned her BA in African-American studies and theater from Yale University and her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Regina, it’s awfully nice to see you again and to spend a little time with you.

Regina Bain:
It’s great to see you too. Thank you for having me.

Lee Wochner:
Well, I have to tell you, I was super excited last summer, I guess it was last fall, to be at the Louis Armstrong House Museum and to get a little tour. And it really was a highlight of my year. And I took a lot of pictures, as you know, because it just felt so great. You know, when I was a boy, he seemed to be on TV all the time. And… His music, his voice, his iconic image made a huge impression on me. And it was like, wow, he lived here and I’m here. That felt very cool.

Regina Bain:
Mm-hmm, it was great to have you. And we love that this museum is in a community. It’s on a block on 107th Street in Corona, Queens, but it represents the legacy of someone who was famous around the world. He’s everywhere. I was talking with someone today and they said, yeah, I never realized I had a Louis Armstrong poster in my home, but we do. It was just, it was always there. He was always there. And I never took the time to really understand who he was. And so it was great to be in the museum. So I love that we’re in the neighborhood, but representing a huge legacy.

Lee Wochner:
And I have to say, I agree with you, that was a neat feeling to be walking down, as you said, neighborhood streets and people walking around and going to the market or whatever and oh, there’s the house and across the street, there’s the center being built. And it just, I was trying to think, where else have I seen that sort of experience? And I guess maybe the Anne Frank House. with a very different sort of legacy, but the Anne Frank House, of course, is in a neighborhood.

Lee Wochner:
So for the benefit of those who may not know, and I realize the bio is very, very long for Louis Armstrong, but can you tell us a little about him? And as you say, why is there such high perception of him as an artist and a person?

Regina Bain:
Yes. So Louis Armstrong, amazing trumpeter, vocalist, humanitarian, was born in New Orleans at the turn of the century. He has two birthdays, one that he knew while he was alive and then there was a birth certificate found after he died. But somewhere in the turn of the century, he was born in the reverberations of slavery and grew up in New Orleans. He learned to play the trumpet. He went to Chicago along with the great migration and then came to New York. And he was in that jazz age and he was at the beginning of it. And he was one of the best. He was one of the first to step forward from the bandstand and take the microphone and claim space as a soloist. He was so big that he was able to eventually say in his contract that he would only play in places that he could stay. So this was a time in America when African-Americans could not stay in most places. And so he said, well, if you won’t have me say there, I can’t play there. As he traveled throughout, he was able to reach that level of fame, which many people could not, and he ushered in, in the way he had hit decade hit songs for five decades, he was on 35 movies. He traveled to 62 different countries. and he lived for 30 years in Corona, Queens with his wife, Lucille. He died in the home in 1971, and we opened as a museum to the public in 2003 and have it been open ever since for guided tours. And this year we opened the new Armstrong Center, a new era for us.

Lee Wochner:
Well, that’s sensational. So let me ask you the question. You know, we do, we here at Counterintuity do a little bit of work with the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

Lee Wochner:
So let me ask you a question that everybody asks me when I talk about this, because again, I was excited to tour it and take photos and look, there I am in the house. They all call him Louis Armstrong. And I grew up hearing Louis Armstrong and you say Louis Armstrong. Why the distinction? Why, what did those, how do those things sound differently to you?

Regina Bain:
Yes. Well, if you ever hear the song, Hello, Dolly, for which he won the Grammy, which is now in our exhibit in the new center, he says, Hello, Dolly, this is Louis Dolly. And he puts the S on the end. And he talks about it that his mother named him Louis, but he answered to Louis. And of course, he grew up in New Orleans, a strong French city. And Louis is a part of his, one of his nicknames, I call it, along with Satchmo and Pops and other things, but his name is Louis.

Lee Wochner:
Well, you know, I have to say I hadn’t thought about the French connection. And of course, it’s pronounced Louie in French. So so there you go. But, you know, we never talk about Charles Chaplin, you know, so it’s just but it he had a distinct level of popularity. Like I remember my mother was always excited when when, oh, there he is, you know, on TV in a movie, whatever. And I remember as a boy watching Hello Dolly and all these other things. And and certainly I’ve heard the music. And as a favorite son of New Orleans, I’ve been to New Orleans several times. And of course, I know that it’s the Lewis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. That’s quite a distinction for the airport to be named after him. So the museum, the House Museum, I wanna talk about the center in a little bit. How did the museum come to be founded? I realized it was 2003, but what led to its founding?

Regina Bain:
Yes. So, uh, Louis died in 71 and Lucille in 83. And in that interim, Lucille said, I want this home to become a museum. And she worked with the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation to donate the home to the city of New York. And the city of New York said, City University of New York, help us shepherd this. And one piece of the City University of New York, is Queens College. And so Queens College worked with LAEF, Lewis Armstrong Educational Foundation, to bring forward the house. And LAEF also donated the archives, the 60,000 piece archives, the largest of any jazz musician to this effort. And so it took a while. It wasn’t until 2003 that the home opened to the public for tours, but… And then it was in 2008 when we became a 501c3 nonprofit as a separate entity. So it took a while, but in the interim, we were doing programs. One of the first programs in the 80s was called Pops is Tops. Pops, one of Louis Armstrong’s nicknames, and it was a children’s concert in the garden even before the house was open for tours. In the 90s, the archives were open at Queens College for researchers to come and check out. But it wasn’t until 2003 that the home was open to the public.

Lee Wochner:
So that interests me a lot. When I was there, there were jazz musicians coming in to practice and things that were going to happen. And I was pretty excited about that. It seems like, you know, sometimes you worry that a museum is just documenting history, which is important,
but the idea that it’s helping to create new music moving forward seemed even more vibrant to me. And so now what I find out is actually performance predates the opening of the museum.

Regina Bain:
Yes, I mean, we are in dedication to a musician. We have to make music at all times, everywhere, and also in the legacy of a dancer. Lucille was a dancer. And so we want to have dance. We’re also in the legacy of a visual artist. Louis Armstrong was a visual artist with 500 collage pieces on his reel-to-reel tapes. We want art of all kinds in this space, because that’s who Louis was. And we want it in all of our spaces. So we now have, I say, three performance spaces. One is the garden. The second is the new center and the jazz club that’s here. And the third is the house. We want to continue to make music and art in the house, in that museum space. And we’ll see how, if there needs to be an audience there or not, but we will make music in the house.

Lee Wochner:
One of the things I enjoyed about the house was how tasteful it was, how well appointed, and nicely done. And then I wonder if you will share with us the story of how that came to be the house, because I found that very interesting.

Regina Bain:
Yes. So it is because Miss Lucille willed it to be. They got married and of course, Louis was traveling on the road in the tour vans and Lucille said, I’m not sure if this is what I want to do. I think we need a house. And Louis said, I don’t think we need that. And she said, okay. And bought the house with her own money from being a dancer and said, okay, the next time you come off the road, this is where we live now. And she found the home in Corona because the Heraldos, the next door neighbors, knew she was looking and said, come, there’s a house next door to us that’s open. You should purchase here. So they came to Corona, Queens, and they stayed. They really loved it here in Queens. When he would go to Manhattan, he would get mobbed. But when he was in Queens, he could walk down the street and enjoy life. So they stayed.

Lee Wochner:
How did you come to be the executive director?

Regina Bain:
I was, so my background is definitely in theater and art, graduating from the Yale School of Drama. But I have a legacy of educators. My mom was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, aunts, cousins, teachers. And so education has always been a part of my blood, literally. And when I… through acting, I found the Posse Foundation, which is a college access and leadership program and began to do programs with them and stayed for 17 years. And then it was time. It was time to look out and see what’s next. And I said, universe, what I would like is something that brings together art and education. And then the universe said, tell people that. So I started to tell my friends what I would like. is something that brings together art and education. And someone said, I think I know an opportunity that might be a good fit. You should check out the Louis Armstrong House Museum. So I had never heard of it before. I’d never been here before. And I took the train, I visited and took the tour and said, I think there’s magic here. And I think there’s something that can grow here. I want, I- I would like to be here. And it was a good choice. It happened in the midst of the pandemic. And that was an interesting time to jump into the arts when everything was closing and the arts were, and still are in many ways struggling financially. But I wanted to take this on because I thought this was important. And it was what I asked for to bring together arts and education.

Lee Wochner:
Much of my, well, most of my life has revolved around the arts. And my, my co-founder here at Counterintuity, we both come from the arts and so do other people here as well. Um, and it, uh, it, it certainly makes for a full life. And, and I have to say, I know all sorts of smart, creative, talented people. And when you put something out into the universe, it, it responds. And I hear that happened to you. You put that out in the universe. and it responded and hats off to you.

Regina Bain:
Thank you, thank you. I did a lot of thinking and searching and maybe procrastinating before I put it out there, but eventually I did and it came back to me.

Lee Wochner:
It’s always better to do that than to be a complaining person sitting on your couch.
And anyway, so hats off to you again. So let’s say that people are at the Louis Armstrong House Museum. What can they expect to find there? What will they see? What can they do?

Regina Bain:
So now they’ll find the new Louis Armstrong Center. So they’ll enter into a spacious lobby and be greeted by a huge mural of Louis and Lucille at the pyramids with the title, Here to Stay, which is the title of the new exhibit curated by Jason Moran. They hopefully have purchased a ticket ahead of time. You should purchase a ticket ahead of time before you come so that you can enter into the multimedia exhibit. And you’ll see this gorgeous stories curated by Jason Moran with archival materials such as the King George Trumpet, the Grammy, books from their library. And then there’s a huge table in the middle of the exhibit that looks like a reel to reel table or a record player. And they can experience individual exhibits, digital exhibits in that space. And then they might hear. The two o’clock tour is leaving. And they would gather in front of the mural, cross the street, and go into the historic house, and go back in time, and see everything just as it was when Louis and Lucille lived there, and hear their voices come through the walls, through the archival recordings that are there. And then they would exit into the garden, and come back. into the space, visit our store if they like, and have an experience here in Queens.

Lee Wochner:
So in a few minutes, I do want to talk to you. You had referenced that the arts are struggling. You and I both have a theater background. We are probably alarmed by what’s going on. So I do want to get to those things, because at a time when so many places are closing down, you’re opening up.

Regina Bain:
Yes, we are.

Lee Wochner:
And I hope people find that as inspiring as I do. And as we all know, the theater has been dying for thousands of years. And yet, that’s not the case. And yet it’s still here

Regina Bain:
They said it’s gonna die! And it comes back.

Lee Wochner:
So I want to get to that and I want to make sure we have time for that. But it was interesting to see the center under construction. And I told you at the time, I come from a construction family. So I’m always interested in those sorts of things. And that felt like a treat. What led to the creation of the center? How did that come about? And because Lucille didn’t say I want a center across the street, how did this come about?

Regina Bain:
the imagination of Michael Cogswell. He was the executive director for 30 years and he had a dream. And there was a parking lot across the street and he worked with Queens College, LAEF, to start that dream in motion. And there were many people alongside of him, assembly people, board members, people in the community, neighbors, who dreamed with him. and worked for, this was in 1999, where there was an article that said the space across the street has been bought. So there was decades of persistence with people in the community working to make that happen, raising the $26 million and ensuring that all of the obstacles were skirted or removed so that we could be here. And… We’re here. It worked.

Lee Wochner:
What, so I’ve opened a couple of spaces myself in my career.

Lee Wochner:
What were the challenges on opening the Louis Armstrong Center?

Regina Bain:
Well, of course, we’re in a neighborhood. So trying to think about what that means spatially and our architects, Caples Jefferson architects really were thoughtful about that and wanted to be a part of the neighborhood but also mark something that is special. And so the building, you see it when you come down the block, you see the undulating front. with the gold mesh in between the two panes of glass. You see the wave that comes out that looks like the top of a piano to me. You see the brass that looks like the trumpet. You see this building when you come down the block. And so just thinking about, conceptually, how to make this building be a part of the neighborhood and how to make what’s inside, speak to the neighborhood. All of that is part of the challenge of the building. And then all of the normal construction things came up as challenges for us, but we made it.

Lee Wochner:
Now that you’re open, what’s been the response of the neighbors?

Regina Bain:
Oh, it’s been great. We had a 400 person ribbon cutting event on the 29th of June. And we closed down the block. We set up chairs in the streets. We set up a stage on the sidewalk and we had speakers, our city council person, I mean, amazing speakers. And we had a challenging incident during the day when… someone, a young person was running down the street and hurt one of our assembly people. And so we had a moment where we needed to stop the ceremony and address this. And what I love is that our community that was assembled on the block, addressed it. They said, we are in community and that this is part of what that means. And what we are meant to do and what this building and legacy is meant to do is serve every aspect of it. So Louis Armstrong was incarcerated when he was a young person. He was in a juvenile delinquency center in New Orleans. And it was because of an arts education program in that center that he got formal training in the cornets and came out playing in the streets in the clubs of New Orleans. And that’s something we support. And that was affirmed by our community. It was affirmed by two young people who live across the street from the historic home. who came up to me as I was on the side and one of them said, it’s gonna be okay.

Lee Wochner:
Aww.

Regina Bain:
And then came on the stage later and told everyone, Louis Armstrong’s legacy is about civil rights and it’s gonna be okay. That’s our community and it’s been great.

Lee Wochner:
That’s a wonderful story. And it’s nice to have it on your ribbon cutting day.

Lee Wochner:
And were you still fundraising during the pandemic?

Regina Bain:
No, fortunately, we were not at that point, we were building. So the shovels went into the ground 2017, but the pandemic definitely halted and slowed. And all of the supply chain issues that came along with that delayed things. So that was a huge, huge challenge to. to work through construction in New York. And Corona in particular was an epicenter for the coronavirus in the beginning of the pandemic. And so this neighborhood in particular was suffering and people were scared and things needed to be protected. The historic home, especially it’s a home, it’s an intimate space. We didn’t have an HVAC system, we had window units. the original, some of the original window units were still in space. And so we needed to make some changes in the historic home and definitely some things needed to change for the new center. But we were able to get started back again and complete.

Lee Wochner:
Any lessons learned that you’d like to share about building out and opening a new space?

Regina Bain:
It will take longer than you think.

Lee Wochner:
Hahaha.

Regina Bain:
If you are an executive director who’s coming into that space, get ready for construction meetings. Get ready to not understand 50% of what is being said,

Regina Bain:
but the other 50% that you understand, you know what you need to know, and you know how to ask the right questions. It was a huge leadership learning moment for me because I was coming in with a train that was moving and decisions needed to be made. And I needed to take the time to learn what I needed to learn, to know that there were things I did not know. But what I did know was directly applicable. I know that this needs to be a space for a community. I know that it needs to be safe. I know that it needs to be welcoming. And those values informed the decisions about doorknobs and signage and all the other things. So as an executive director, or anyone else who’s approaching building, it will take longer than you think. Be patient. And when you don’t know something, rely on your values for your decision-making.

Lee Wochner:
values. Uh huh. well said. So you just you just brought up welcomingness, And and I’d like to address that and some other things about what’s going on in the arts and about marketing in just a moment. But let’s take a short break and we’ll be right back in just a minute with Regina Bain.

Jaclyn Uloth:
Hi this is Jaclyn with Counterintuity.

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Lee Wochner:
And we are back with Regina Bain, Executive Director of the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the Louis Armstrong Center in Queens, New York. So just before the break, you were talking about making sure that the center is welcoming. And so I wanna lead off with this question. You know, I’m still on the board of the theater company I founded in 92. And we’ve had a few different spaces over the years. And we’re having a discussion about how to make the theater more welcoming. Because one of the things that I think has changed is, you can crawl through traffic, hire a sitter if you need to do that, pay to park, buy your ticket in advance, and pay a lot of money to go to a play, versus sitting at home and watching Apple TV Plus for $5 a month.

Lee Wochner:
And… So I’d like to explore with you the question of, are our performing arts spaces welcoming enough? Or how could we make them more welcoming? Because that’s part of the marketing, isn’t it?

Regina Bain:
Well, first, I believe in the power of live performing arts. I believe that there’s something special about exchanging molecules in a space, about reverberations from vocal cords and from heat, from bodies. I believe in the power of live arts to change molecules, to change minds. And so… I think there’s also something very special about recorded arts, about film, and there are things that you cannot do anywhere else that you can do there. They’re different, we need all of it. And so we have to share the power of all the different types of arts and make the live performing arts as accessible as possible. That has to do with cost, most definitively, and there’s a lot of theater that is very expensive. But there’s a lot of theater that’s not, and that’s very good. And so helping folks to find the theater that is close to them, that may be more accessible financially, I think that’s part of it. I think it means telling stories that represent the breadth of the American, the international experience. That has to do with race, that has to do with gender, has to do with class, it has to do with language. It has to do with sexuality. It has to do with the breadth of the American experience that should be represented on the stage. And I think it also has to do with literally when someone walks in the door, what happens? And that’s something that we have been thinking about here at the museum, because before when people walked through the door, they were walking into a home. And there’s a different energy that you get when you walk into a home. Now they’re walking into a brand new facility, but we wanna make it feel like they’re walking into a home. And so there are things that we’re trying to put in place that invoke that feeling. Everything from, we should have plants on the welcome desk, to let’s try and chat with people as they come in. And so I think there are little things like that make people feel welcomed. And then of course, there’s your long-term strategic marketing plan, who are you reaching out to actively, and your long-term strategic DEI plan, how are you thinking about diversity, equity, inclusion, and every aspect of your organization. So there’s a lot to it, to this concept of being welcoming, but it’s important. And it’s… essential to the survival of our institutions.

Lee Wochner:
So I have been to, and I’m sure you have as well, museums and performing arts centers and such that feel very welcoming, like you’re invited in, here and elsewhere in the world. And then I’ve been to ones that are clearly, what are you doing here? It seems to be the perspective right away. And there’s just some sort of chilly vibe or… I can’t even explain it. And I’ll give you one example. When I was at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, even the security guards seemed friendlier and glad you were there somehow than the ones who stand very judgmentally like sentries in the corner of every room in most other large museums. How do we put our finger on the difference between that? One of the things you just said was when someone comes to the center, they’re welcomed. And someone says, hello. Like I like that

Lee Wochner:
What can people put in practice if they’re running a live space that involves the arts?

Regina Bain:
Hmm. And I don’t want to say that we are, um, we are perfect in this. This is something that we strive toward and, and reach toward endeavor to do. And everyone has a day. I know I’ve had a day when I am not in the mood. Um, and that energy may come across, uh, to different folks. So giving grace for that, we do strive. And. I think part of that is about our size. We’re a smaller institution. We’re a small staff. And so there’s a conviviality that gets produced when things are smaller that is, I think, harder when things get bigger. And so I honor the larger institutions that are trying to think about how to do this work when there are hundreds of people on the team. But we’re smaller, and so we can have conversations about what it means to welcome people, which we do. We can have a docent program where our director of guest experience, Adriana Carrillo, is very thoughtful about the application process for the docent program and the selection process for the docents and the training of them. and the training that we are in the legacy of Lewis and Lucio. Lewis was one of the most welcoming people on the planet. He wrote tons of letters to people who wrote to him. There’s a member of our board now who wrote to him as an opening salvo. He didn’t think it was that, but it was just he wrote to him. And Lewis Armstrong wrote back. And they became pen pals. And when he came to our archives, He discovered that Lewis had kept all of his letters and they were here in our archives because they had been a part of Lewis’s things. That’s the kind of man he was and we are in his legacy. So that’s the kind of people we have to be in the kind of institution we have to be and strive to be. And all of that is in the context of we have to have policies and procedures and things that keep ourselves and our institution and our guests safe. And let’s welcome our open our arms as much as we can.

Lee Wochner:
So, and how do you do that with marketing? What sort of marketing are you doing about the programs and the events and such at the center and at the museum?

Regina Bain:
We’ve been a secret, a well-known secret and people know, Oh, either I didn’t know it was there. I didn’t know the house was there or I know about it and I’ve been meaning to come, but I just haven’t gotten there. Now we’re saying, come, we’re here and you are welcome. And we’re doing that through a shorefire media company that’s helping us to get the word out
and being thoughtful about how to craft our message and make sure people know that we’re here and that they’re welcome. And now is the time to come to do that thing that you’ve been saying you would do for many years. We’ve been a secret, a well-known secret and people know, Oh, either I didn’t know it was there. I didn’t know the house was there or I know about it and I’ve been meaning to come, but I just haven’t gotten there. Now we’re saying, come, we’re here and you are welcome

Lee Wochner:
I associate Louis Armstrong with the thrill of being alive, with

Lee Wochner:
joy. There’s just such a positive life force there and I think that a lot of people in the world could use more of that.

Regina Bain:
Most definitely.

Lee Wochner:
Yeah, so I wonder if you’re marketing the joy now that you’re getting ready to do that. I mean,
it’s hard to put your finger on why something moves you in the way it does, right? Because sometimes something is not great and then something is spectacular. And his music, his voice, his presence, his iconography, all of it just seem life-affirming to me.

Regina Bain:
Yes, we are marketing the joy and that old adage that joy is different from happiness. Joy is complete with sorrow, with sublime experiences, with melancholy, with juxtapose, with this shout, ring shout of joy. That’s joy. It’s complete, it’s full, it’s round, it’s robust. It’s that robust glass of wine. That’s what joy is for me. It’s both the smile that Louis Armstrong has and that moment when he’s alone thinking. All of that together is joy. And when we think about what is in our world, there’s a lot to be concerned about. And there’s a lot to be proud of. And we have to see both, I think. Because if we, if we dwell on one and not the other, we’re not seeing the whole of the picture. I think for some, there’s a certain type of joy that they want to see from Louis Armstrong. That might be a little bit one-dimensional. And we’re saying, see that, but see all of it. See the racism he encountered. See the poverty he was a part of. And also see the joy. When you come here to the museum, you have to see all of it.

Lee Wochner:
I’m at a stage of life where one starts to think about, you know, the positives and the negatives with, you hope, more wisdom. And I love your story, which you had told me when I met you, of Louis Armstrong learning the trumpet in the penitentiary, right? You know, a chance of redemption that helps form a great artist. So I think that, you know, nobody’s perfect. When we talked about welcoming people, we here are on a constant mission to improve what we call client touch points. And they’ll never get perfect, but we wanna make them better and better because we’re trying to spread success and wellbeing in…in whatever way we can through marketing. And so I guess what I would ask is, through all of this, through putting out the universal message of, hey, I want to be at this place, which I find very inspiring, and then, hey, that became available, we’re going to open this center, and we’re going to shut down the street, and we’re going to welcome the neighborhood, and all of this other. And I know that can’t have been easy. None of that was easy.

Regina Bain:
No it was not.

Lee Wochner:
What would you say? So now that you have opened and you’ve arrived at what we’ll call a new plateau of wisdom, right? What have you learned that you would share with others?

Regina Bain:
I’ve learned that you can do it. That dream that you have, it can be done. It might take a while. You might not actually see it come true, but it can be done if you gather enough people around you who believe in it too. And that’s a good lesson to learn. You can do it. It can be done and the legacy can outlast you. There are people who began this journey who are not here at this point. There were people who will continue this journey after me. And that’s part of what Louis Armstrong did. He had a dream for his life. He put it to work and he left something for us to continue and that dream has outlasted his lifetime. It can be done.

Lee Wochner:
It’s hard to imagine a better mission on Earth than inspiring others. And I think Louis Armstrong certainly did that. And I think what you just said is going to inspire other people. Positivity builds on positivity. So I thank you for that. That was really beautiful.

Regina Bain:
Thank you.

Lee Wochner:
How can people learn more about the Louis Armstrong House Museum and the Center?

Regina Bain:
They can go to louisarmstronghouse.org and check out our website. That’s where they can get tickets for the exhibit, for the historic house tour. It’s where they can sign up for our newsletter so that they can learn more about our events. We’re gonna have performances in the new center and the garden coming up. They can learn about our education program. So right now, when you go to the website, and by the way, this is the website that you all have helped us with,
by the way, louisarmstronghouse.org. They can find out about education programs and there are things that are there for free that they can work with their young people right now or find out how to bring their students to the museum. So check out the website, you can follow us on social media and sign up for the newsletter.

Lee Wochner:
Regina, it’s been an absolute pleasure and I’m gonna be back pretty soon because I have to come check out that center and I will let you know in advance. I would hope to see you there and it’s been a real pleasure to have you here today.

Jaclyn Uloth:
Thanks for listening we’re glad you came. That’s What C! Said is produced by Lisa Pham and engineered by Joe Curet. It’s available on Apple podcast, Spotify and wherever you get your podcast. Please like and follow the show. Visit Counterintuity.com to sign up and learn more.