ROGERS, Ark. — Downtown Rogers will be filled with music as the Music Depot hosts its grand opening on Friday, July 7. The venue will highlight live Black roots music like blues, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and gospel.
The Music Depot won't be just a place for entertaining; it'll also be used to educate the community.
"This will allow the community to engage here, even at a more intimate personal level, you'll be able to see acts that you wouldn't normally see, of course, the presentations that will be here. Throughout the year, we're able to now accommodate an entire semester's worth of literature for our young people," said Music Moves president Reggie James.
The non-profit behind this venue, Music Moves, develops curriculum, programs, and performances to share African-American contributions in all music genres. They previously hosted the Black Music Expo and the Freedom Festival in Springdale, celebrating Juneteenth.
"We had been doing the work in the community, kind of going to schools doing educational pieces and doing presentations for about the last 10 years. And so in 2019, we finally decided to incorporate and so that's kind of how we got birth," James said.
Music Moves' mission is to make Black music accessible to students and the entire community. Their curriculum was designed by Grammy Award-winning Dr. Jeffrey Allen Murdock of the University of Arkansas.
"It allows students to engage not only academically, but they're also able to engage with making some of the instruments that are from the African diaspora or they're able to kind of even be involved in doing some of the singing some of the call and responses," president James said.
The building was previously known as Golden’s Jewelry. Music Depot Manager Anthony Ball says the previous owners were looking for a community organization to overtake the property when they found Music Moves.
Ball took the initiative in ensuring that the history of the space would continue to be told. He received clippings and other pieces of information from the previous owner to help. Their logo of a diamond and a train pays homage to Golden’s Jewelry and the Railyard in Rogers.
There is a vault inside being retrofitted into a bar. Ball says the building was home to the first theater in Rogers which explains the long, high vaulted front room. It has a second-story room peeking into the large space which is going to become a VIP room, according to the manager.
North Carolina-based group The Hamiltones will kick off the grand opening with two live performances. The first at 6:30 p.m. and the second at 9 p.m. Tickets are limited so they encourage early registration. For tickets visit Music Move's Music Depot page.
Some names that are already booked for the summer and the fall include Dee Dee Jones, Dino D and the D-Train, and the Rodney Block Collective.
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