Sonny's Blues

• In connection with Sonny Rollins' receipt of an honorary Doctorate of Music at Rutger's University, Sonny Rollins joined Faith at her 50 Year Retrospective at the Mason Gross School of Art. Faith received her 21st honorary doctorate as well, and we celebrated with Rollins playing at her exhibition in front of her image of Sonny Rollins practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Photo Essay: Sonny Rollins Plays At Faith Ringgold's Retrospective

Dr. Phillip G Zimbardo, Faith Ringgold, Prof. Abenia Busia, Sonny Rollins and Burdette Ringgold at Rutger's University, 2009

Photos taken by Faith Wallace-Gadsden (copyright 2009)

Sonny Rollins and Faith Ringgold, childhood friends from Edgecombe Avenue on Sugar Hill together again.  And how sweet it is.  Aside from my Dad, Burdette Ringgold, these pictures include Sonny Rollins, the great musician, Faith Ringgold, the great artist, and Dr. Phillip G. Zimbardo, distinguished professor of psychology at Stanford who is perhaps best known for the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment in which the innate corruptibility of situational dominance is explored.  All three New York City bred.  New York's Finest you might say.