Jea Street, Jr. is a singer/songwriter born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. Jea has sung professional operatic and Broadway roles, produced a hip-hop album, and recorded several of his own projects. He was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Delaware Art Museum to co-write a work that told the story of the 1968 occupation of Wilmington, Delaware after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Jea has completed a recording project entitled “The Sit Down,” which tours as a production of Artivism brought to life in the form of a musical experience, and he performed the inaugural set of Firefly CHATs in 2019 on the topic of Artivism. Jea created Ronapalooza, one of the first online music festivals “by artists and for artists,” at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a way to continue creating music and engaging with fans.
Interviewed by Tamar Sella, 09/14/2020.