USPS to unveil stamp honoring jazz legend Allen Toussaint in Hempstead

Jazz legend Allen Toussaint will be in the spotlight in Hempstead Tuesday when a postage stamp bearing the late musician’s likeness is unveiled in a Black History Month event.

Students from the Empire State After School Program in the Hempstead school district will celebrate Toussaint and Black history and culture with spoken word and dance performances at the Joysetta & Julius Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County.

For students born after Toussaint's death in 2015, the stamp may be their introduction to his legacy, said Barbara Powell, director of the Empire After School program. “They may not know who he is, but then again, this is an opportunity to learn more about Black history,” Powell said.

The after-school program, which serves elementary school children, has held events around the annual unveiling of the Black Heritage stamp for six years, Powell said. “They learn about who is on the stamp and what they've contributed to our culture … you can never learn too much history.”

Part of that learning experience comes from students reading cards to the audience about the person’s life and accomplishments, she said.

A musical inspiration

Born in 1938 in New Orleans, Toussaint took up the piano at age 7 and got his big break as a teenager when he filled in for musician Fats Domino at a recording session, according to a 2015 obituary in Rolling Stone magazine. The Grammy-winning musician also made a name for himself as a producer and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The influential and iconic Toussaint “played a pivotal role of formulating a unique style of soul, funk and R&B that became emblematic of New Orleans,” Rolling Stone wrote.

In 2013, President Barack Obama presented Toussaint with the National Medal of Arts, crediting him with working to “revive the legendary soul of the Big Easy” following Hurricane Katrina, according to video of the award ceremony.

“Allen Toussaint is being honored here for his incredible contributions to the rhythm and blues and jazz music of his beloved New Orleans,” Obama said before Toussaint came onstage to accept his medal. “After his hometown was battered by Katrina and Allen was forced to evacuate, he did something even more important for his city; he went back and since then Allen’s devoted his musical talent to lifting up and building up a city.” 

He died in 2015 at age 77 from a heart attack following a concert in Madrid.

Nigel Gretton, a musician and director of performing arts at St. John’s University, said Toussaint “had a unique style” that has influenced him and other musicians.

“You hear the influences of New Orleans, but you hear influences also of just other parts of the South and I found that in listening to some of that [Toussaint’s] music, I incorporated some of my own playing,” said Gretton, who will be giving the keynote speech at Tuesday’s event.

“It's the marks that we make on humanity that end up keeping us alive in the minds and hearts of people for eternity, just because of the fact that we actually do things that touch the next generations,” Gretton said.

'Black history is American history'

In 1978, the U.S. Postal Service issued its first Black Heritage stamp, honoring Harriet Tubman. Every year since then, the Postal Service has honored Black Americans who made important contributions to the country.

With his likeness sitting behind a piano on the 48th Black Heritage stamp, Toussaint shares the honor with such luminaries as civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., author Zora Neal Hurston, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and journalist Gwen Ifill, according to USPS records. The U.S. Postal Service announced in December that Toussaint would be on the stamp and last month held a dedication ceremony in New Orleans, according to the USPS.

Tuesday’s performances will include a dance that tells the story of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery.

“The dance is telling the story about how as people, they had to stand up and fight for their freedom under her leadership,” said Rochelle Legette, an English as a New Language educator and the choreographer and instructor of the Empire Joseph A. McNeil and Obama Elementary School dancers, who choreographed the dance.

The music begins with the crack of a whip from a slave master who demands that she return.

“She's on a bridge and she has a choice … to either come back into slavery or jump into the water, and she chooses to jump,” Legette said. Children onstage depict slave work, picking cotton or farming.

“Some of them are just trembling and crying, some of them are just laboring in the sun,” Legette said. “And then she [Tubman] starts to talk about how she's been walking toward this freedom.”

By the end of the dance, others have escaped, and “they're meditating or praying for the journey of the slaves that were left behind, the ones that are still dancing to get to where they are, where freedom is,” Legette said.

In President Donald Trump’s second administration, diversity programs have become a target. Powell said recognizing Black history is always important, especially in this moment.

“At a time like this, it's more important that we do things like this,” Powell said. “Black history is American history; you can never erase it.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect date for the stamp unveiling.