September 18-21, 2014 "OutBeat: America's First Queer Jazz Festival"

The William Way LGBT Community Center, with generous support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, is proud to announce OutBeat: America’s First Queer Jazz Festival. The four-day festival will serve as the finale for the Community Center’s annual music series and highlight the intersections between sexual orientation, gender identity, and jazz history and culture.

OutBeat will feature a vibrant and eclectic mix of world-renowned jazz musicians brought together to educate and entertain audiences with once-in-a-lifetime performances, panel discussions, and master classes.

Established in 1976 as the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia, the William Way LGBT Community Center evolved from a modest rented facility on Kater Street to a prominent four-story, privately owned building in the heart of Philadelphia’s historic Gayborhood. With more than 50,000 visitors each year, the organization thrives with a diverse array of over seventy monthly programs and activities that serve Greater Philadelphia’s vibrant and unique LGBTQ community. These programs include free peer counseling, senior programs, an art gallery, one of the largest LGBT archives in the western hemisphere, a public cyber center, hiking and tour groups, and other recreational, health, educational, arts, and cultural opportunities.