The Kinston Music Park is located at Spring Hill and South Queen streets in the Kinston’s Sugar Hill district, the area that was once the vibrant hub of African American music. It was the place where musicians including Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong played. The dominant feature of the park is a 12-foot high, 23-foot wide massive sculpture with images of the most famous jazz, rhythm and blues, soul and gospel musicians from Kinston and surrounding area. The sculpture was created by David Wilson and Brandon Yow. There is a large ring of benches around the artwork. The park also has a large colorful tile mosaics created by Kinston students in a youth project honoring the North Carolina painter Romare Bearden. Another mosaic tile refers to the Uptighters, a 1970s band led by Tyrone Greene. Women in jazz are featured on another mosaic, showcasing the International Sweethearts of Rhythm, a multi-racial, all-female jazz band of the 1940s to 1950s.

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