[upbeat jazz music] - When people come to see me do a poem, or come to the theater, or you know, hear a piece of music from the band, first, I want them to enjoy it.

Hopefully it sparks something in them, at least a bit of creativity or a positive thought.

And also, I hope that they learn something in the process, whether it's about Black people specifically, whether it's about myself, or whether it's about them, I want them to be able to learn something and take something away from what they got out of the experience.

Good God.

Y'all share your love with Courtney on the bass.

[audience cheering] My name is Quentin Talley, and my home is Charlotte, North Carolina.

♪ When you discover the truth ♪ ♪ It makes your dreams come true ♪ ♪ Baby, say what you will ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm here for the kill ♪ I'm a artist, I do multiple things in the arts.

Started as an actor, moved onto directing, producing, community organizing, curation.

Actually, my love for the arts started very early.

I grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina, and then first grade, then our teacher told us whoever got the highest grade on the test would be able to choose their part in our school play.

I got the highest grade, and the school play was "The Little Gingerbread Boy."

Of course, "The Little Gingerbread Boy" looked like me, had the same color as me, so I became "The Little Gingerbread Boy" in first grade, and my career has taken off since then.

[upbeat jazz music] Y'all, show your love for the band one more time.

[audience applauding and cheering] My work reflects the Black experience in various ways.

You know, I grew up a Southern kid.

A lot of my stories, and especially on the poetry side, reflects that in telling stories.

There's so much going on in the world, it's always good to kinda decipher all the craziness [chuckling] that happens in life through the lens of poetry, and it kinda makes it more accessible to folks.

[solemn music] We come from resilience, the ones who survived the journey.

This is history, tradition, legacy.

Fought for every inch, just for the right to be.

Finding ourselves in this American dream.

We are history since landing on these shores, the way we crossed over troubled waters.

We are the ones who sing a song full of hope that the dark past has taught us.

So we go into the future like the ancestors who knew they guide our path with the torch that they passed to you, and to you, and to you, too.

And if you so choose, this moment is ours, and the mission is to show and prove for years to come, we are the ones.

We've been singing this song like Nina Simone, like Marian Anderson, like Mahalia Jackson.

We bend the blues like B.B.

King, like Howlin' Wolf, muddying the waters, and we've been running towards the future.

Now the stars are yours.

All you gotta do is reach for, follow the North Star.

That is tradition, history, legacy, survival-type tactics.

We come from resilience.

Poetry is kind of a, is more of a solo act, just you sitting with your thoughts, you know, writing this poem, you know, picking a topic.

[smooth jazz music] In 2006, when I got to Charlotte, I was doing poetry, but theater has always been my go-to and first love.

So started On Q Productions in 2006, and the mission was to produce classic, contemporary, and original performance works that reflect the Black experience.

So "Miles & Coltrane" Blue [.]"

by Concrete Generation was written by my friends and a group of poets.

We were talking about theater and music and how there was no work or production about Miles Davis or John Coltrane.

So Miles Davis, famous trumpeter, and if I'm not mistaken, one of the highest-grossing jazz musicians of all time.

Same thing with John Coltrane, and John Coltrane is actually from North Carolina.

So those are just two legends of many a legends in the Black music canon that deserve these stories.

Having that conversation with the musician, you just realize how many stories there are to tell about, about Black people and their experiences [upbeat jazz music] I've always been a fan of music.

Musically, it started early for me as well.

You know, growing up in the church choir, always singing the church choir, and just always have been around music.

♪ It's cool ♪ When I got to Charlotte, I was always working with musicians because at the poetry spot, you know, you would have a band that would play before the poets came on.

So always had that kind of, that kind of vibe with the band, and indirectly working with those musicians.

I wanted to formally put together a band.

So we started about five, six years ago, and we do a little bit of everything from jazz, funk, of course, spoken word.

Came up with the name Quentin Tally in the Soul Providers.

♪ Come see me ♪ ♪ Whether right now or next week ♪ What I like most about the art that I make really changes on any given day.

[laughing] Whether it's a poem that I wrote or a new song with the band, it's the little butterflies in my stomach I get when I, you know, when I hear a song, the band is done, I'm like, "Oh, that's super, super dope."

It is like a kid at Christmas for me, and it's always been cool to kinda create worlds out of nothing.

[upbeat jazz music] ♪ Ooh ♪ It's really cool to have something that came out of your thoughts and into the world to be presented to people, and they want to tell folks about it, support you, so that's always a blessing, and it's just a beautiful thing to me.

[upbeat jazz music] Yeah.

Y'all show your love for the band, baby.

[audience cheering] We appreciate.