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Working to preserve a legendary jazz club on film and in real life

On this edition of In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Ken Coleman. He is the special projects contributor at the Michigan Advance, a nonprofit news organization. He wrote four books on African-American life in Detroit.

Coleman writes about a project to bring the story of a legendary Detroit jazz club to film — Baker's Keyboard Lounge. It opened in 1934 and is Detroit’s oldest jazz club in continuous operation.

Coleman talks about the greats that played there, where it stands in the history of jazz clubs in the U.S., why it’s important to preserve it, and the effort the put the lounge on film.

John L. Hanson is the producer and host of the nationally syndicated radio series In Black America. It’s heard on home station KUT at 10 p.m. Tuesdays and 6:30 a.m. Sundays — and weekly on close to 20 stations across the country. The weekly podcast of IBA, the only nationally broadcast Black-oriented public affairs radio program, is one of KUT’s most popular podcasts.