Jazz Orbit – A Mobile Music Platform & Encounter

An initiative developed by Waillis Lee, Yale China Fellow

Join Waillis Lee, 2022 HKETONY Arts Activator Fellow with the Festival for a mobile music and relationship-building ride to bring joy to the New Haven community. Jazz Orbit, painted in bright colors with geometric patterns and supported by the engineering design of Ryan Paxton from the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, offers a fun yet poetic illustration of the mathematics and science behind bike engineering and jazz music. The audience is invited to improvise and co-create a colorful and vibrant experience while New Haven musicians delight us with jazz tunes! Learn more about Waillis at yalechina.org/jazz-orbit.

This program was made possible in collaboration with Ryan Paxton, Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, New Haven Jazz Underground, Jarron Long, Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective, Paul Proulx, Elm City Cycling, The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, and Steve Rodgers.

Waillis Lee

2022 HKETONY Arts Activator

Waillis is an experienced arts and cultural project planner and researcher. She is now working as a guest lecturer at The Education University of Hong Kong, teaching an undergraduate course on arts and cultural policy. Prior to that, she worked in the performing arts division of West Kowloon Cultural District for around 8 years, working on engagement strategy, including producing community engagement programs, devising audience engagement frameworks and program evaluation models for the performing arts division. With a cross-disciplinary mindset, Waillis aspires to draw meaningful connections between ideas, cultures, and people, and to bring about cross-sector arts innovation. Waillis was also a content editor and contributing writer for publications on cultural issues and policy as she worked for the avant-garde theatre group Zuni Icosahedron in Hong Kong. She holds two master’s degrees, the first in cultural studies from Goldsmiths College and the second in music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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