THE WHAT AND WHY OF IT ALL:
Jazz at Lincoln Center will bestow the 2nd Annual Ashley
Wendy Oxenhorn is
the Executive Director of the Jazz Foundation of America, co-founder of
Street News and a blues harmonica player.
At
the age of 14, Wendy moved on her own to New York City, where she
attended the School of American Ballet and danced with New York City
Ballet. At 17, a career-ending knee injury threw her into a severe
depression, prompting Wendy to call a suicide hotline. She found herself
consoling the counselor on the line, who was herself depressed… Wendy
started working at the suicide hotline three days later. She started as a
crisis counselor and after a year expanded their reach by finding
permanent housing for single mothers with children who were living in
abandoned buildings in Harlem, thus beginning her career in the
humanitarian arena.
Her
first venture was a volunteer group with partner Carol Ann Ross, that
fed, clothed and took children of homeless families on outings each week
to places they could never otherwise go; like the ballet, circus, opera
and movies, to give them a chance to see there was another world than
the one they were being offered.
In 1990, Wendy co-founded the newspaper, STREETNEWS, which
provided immediate employment for a homeless workforce. She recruited
Fortune 500 CEOs and celebrities, and gained front page coverage in the
New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Herald Tribune. Talk show
appearances included Regis and Kathy Lee, CBS Nightline and the TODAY
Show. At its peak, STREETNEWS employed over 2000 homeless men and
women in New York City and had a circulation that equaled the Village
Voice. It is credited with being the first homeless-sold newspaper and
has inspired as many as 150 like-papers in major cities throughout the
world.
In
1994, Ms. Oxenhorn started a Board of Education approved public school
program called Children of Substance, a support group that helped middle
school girls cope with drug addicted and alcoholic parents. These 12
& 13 yr old children suffered from Bulimia, depression, incest &
suicide attempts.
In
2000, Wendy became the Executive Director of the Jazz Foundation of
America, which provides assistance to elderly professional jazz and
blues musicians in need. She was the sole employee at the time she was
hired, and JFA had $7,000 in the bank and helped 35 musicians a year. In
her first year, Wendy expanded the foundation's operations and created
their annual gala at the Apollo, “A Great Night In Harlem” which has
since raised over 26 million dollars, building an organization with a $3
million annual budget. JFA's partnership
with Angels; Dr.Forte & the Englewood Hospital & Medical Center
has provided $7 million dollars of pro bono medical care &
operations to 1000 uninsured musicians as well. Wendy's work
included intensive post-Katrina relief efforts. The
hurricane increased the organization’s caseload from 500 to over 1,500
musicians in crisis, and they are credited with paying rents (Thanks to a
fund from E*TRADE through Jarrett Lilien) and for re-housing over 1,000
stranded musician families and bringing hundreds back to New
Orleans. Oxenhorn created immediate employment putting over 500
displaced musicians to work performing in public schools in the 24
states they found themselves in. This one million dollar a year effort
became the life-saving "Saint" Agnes Varis Jazz in the Schools Program,
which to this day hundreds of elder veterans are able to pay their own
rent while introducing jazz to thousands of children across America.
Since
taking over the executive directorship of the JFA, along with her Jazz
Foundation Family of dedicated tireless staff including Alisa Hafkin,
Joe Petrucelli, Daryl Dunbar, Petr Verner, Will Glass, Dashiell Feiler,
Ricky Graboski and its Board of Directors and Saints
like Jarrett Lilien, Dr.Frank
Ms. Oxenhorn was recently voted onto the Board of the Montreux Jazz (Festival's) Artists Foundation in Switzerland.
