Suzanne C.
Biography
Suzanne Cloud, writer, historian, and jazz singer appearing with Philadelphia's top musicians, received her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in American Studies. Cloud has authored six young-adult history books, contributed to the African-American National Biography Project at Harvard, contributor to the Broad Street Review, and was the founding director of Jazz Bridge, a nonprofit aiding musicians in crisis. Her play Last Call at the Downbeat was part of the 2013 Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. Cloud, a past Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and recipient of the Rutgers University Chancellor's Award for Civic Engagement in 2015, conceptualized Vision Song: Our Hearts, Our Future, Our Voices, a commission for jazz orchestra for Kimmel Center performances April 2016. Cloud has recorded critically acclaimed albums on the Dreambox label, which recently reissued her political 1995 release With a Little Help from My Friends. Currently, director of the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project to establish a Philadelphia jazz archive.
