In honor of Black History Month, the Schomburg center will celebrate Allen's life and career with music, video and anecdotes.

Geoffrey Rush goes bananas—and lets the audience in on it—in Gogol's "Diary of a Madman" at BAM's Harvey theater.

The Skatalites, the Jamaican band credited with inventing ska music, plays Irving Plaza tonight. Download the group's "On the Right Track" here.

For three hours, they bid on everything from inscribed Langston Hughes books to a painting by Horne's friend Charles Alston to a pair of cuffs that Jenny Lumet will wear to the Oscars.

The Brooklyn-based rapper who is the frontman of the alt-hip-hop group Anti-Pop Consortium—yes we're talking about Beans—recently stopped by WNYC's Soundcheck studios. Check out a video of his performance of "Electric Eliminator" here.

Novelist Wesley Stace recently joined Soundcheck to perform under his stage name John Wesley Harding. Click here to check out the video for his acoustic performance of the British folk song "Little Musgrave."

More than 200 avant garde musicians will take over the Park Avenue Armory this week for the first ever Tune-In Music Festival. The performers will play the work of contemporary composers Steve Reich, John Cage, Georg Friedrich Haas and others.

After she won her Grammy, Adele said, "I remember a lot of people saying 'I don't think her songs are as good as her voice is.'" So, she made a conscious effort to focus on her songwriting. This song was one of the first ones she wrote for her album 21, and she says it is representative of her as a person: "A boisterous, cheeky song: that's 'Rolling In The Deep.'"

From Thursday through Sunday, BAM hosts a 13-film series featuring Sarandon, with some films followed by question-and-answer sessions.

For almost a decade, legendary Cuban music groups like Los Munequitos de Matanzas and Septeto Nacional were refused visas to perform in the United States—until now.

The art-rock band with an extra long name …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead recently visited WNYC's Soundcheck studios. The group performed music from its seventh album, Tao of the Dead, which includes illustrations by frontman Conrad Keely. Check out a video here.

A new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York tells the story of the Apollo theater's 77-year history with memorabilia.

Todd Snider has been criss-crossing the country for over 15 years playing his talking blues-style, self-described hippy music to like-minded people. Says Snider: "It's an easy job, but someone's got to do it."

There's no shortage of edifying, educating and exciting events happening in New York City this February to mark Black History Month. Here are a few recommendations from WNYC's Culture team.

Dress codes in New York nightclubs that may disguise racial discrimination are under scrutiny. The New York City Commission on Human Rights is investigating The Continental, an East Village bar accused of having a racist door policy.

A new report from the National Arts Index reported that the vitalty of the arts in the U.S. has reached a 12-year low. However, NYC arts groups have found signs of hope.

Saxophonist and composer Matt Bauder has been writing and performing jazz from Chicago to New York. Watch a video of Bauder performing live in the Soundcheck studio right here.

Bill Hennessy of Keyboard Express has been moving pianos for 24 years and he says the key to tackling the ivories in New York City is parking and brain power. Check out WNYC's video of Hennessy and his team at work here.

After a rocky couple of years, the Brooklyn Philharmonic is back with a new artistic director: Alan Pierson of the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.

Don Kirshner, the Bronx music publisher, producer and television host who saw promise in musicians who spanned decades and genres, passed away on Monday of heart failure at the age of 76 in Boca Raton, Florida.