By Toni Tupponce, A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas

Tyrone Jefferson says that a great song is a story…set to music.

Sometimes the melody and rhythm come first, evoking an emotion or a memory that gives rise to the “story.” Other times, the story – or verse – seeks out melody and rhythm to help it take flight.

His dream of composing, arranging and performing music that shares the great stories and legacy of black and brown people was, for a while, deferred. It waited as he took care of the business of “life” – from raising a family to working as James Brown’s music director, off and on, for 28 years. That dream was always close to the surface, waiting its time.

But Jefferson believes that dream’s time is now.

Jefferson has planned each step that his organization, A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas, has taken and carefully crafted his response to every opportunity that has come his way over the past 15 years. The nonprofit’s mission “to keep the legacy of black people alive through music, dance and spoken word,” he believes, is more essential today, than ever before.

A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas board members at their first facilitated strategic planning retreat in September with Charles Page of the Cool Spring Center, located in Rowan County, North Carolina.

The 2014 Knight Foundation Innovative Grant, awarded through the Arts & Science Council, has allowed the organization to “dig deeper” and focus on three key issues: leadership development, strategic planning for sustainability and the initiation of two new programs that will build on the organization’s mission.

The 13-member board of directors held its first facilitated strategic planning retreat in September 2014 with Charles Page of the Cool Spring Center. As a result of their work, the board initiated an environmental scan to determine the organization’s reputation and standing in the surrounding community. The insights gained will impact the organization’s marketing and branding efforts.

Plans to market the organization’s services to new audiences – sharing the stories and the music with new communities, colleges and institutions – are already coming to fruition.

In recent months, A Sign of the Times’ jazz ensemble shared the meaning of Kwanzaa with students at Appalachian State University; partnered with UNC-Charlotte and the Charlotte Symphony to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. before a racially diverse, standing room only audience at the Historic Excelsior Club in Charlotte; and sponsored a 90th birthday celebration for a Charlotte jazz icon, Johnny “Chief” Holloway, that resulted in his receiving the “Order of the Long Leaf Pine,” securing his place as a Carolina legend.

Projects are in the works with the North Carolina Museum of History and the Winston-Salem arts community.

Two new programs are underway for launch in 2015. First, testing his belief that “Black history is invisible to most but invaluable to all,” Jefferson will implement a project that shares black history facts – from the antiquity of ancient Kemet to the 21st century – with young students and track their academic achievement and civic engagement through high school.

Meanwhile, his wife and partner, Toni Tupponce, will initiate a program called “Listen” to engage divergent groups in meaningful conversations around difficult topics like the impact of racial profiling, the widening generation gap and jazz vs. hip hop. The goal of the conversations will be to seek understanding, tolerance and compassion – without judgment, conviction or the necessity of agreement.

Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes wrote: “What happens to a dream deferred?” Tyrone Jefferson’s dreams for A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas, no longer deferred, are set to explode into a legacy whose time, all signs indicate, has come.

Toni Tupponce (left foreground) and Tyrone Jefferson (center) perform with A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas at the 90th birthday celebration for Charlotte jazz icon Johnny “Chief” Holloway.