GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro-raised drummer is spending six weeks turning Gate City jazz history into workshops, podcasts and a November concert under Creative Greensboro’s GROW program.
Larry Q. Draughn Jr., who studied at Grimsley High School and North Carolina A&T before touring with major jazz acts, holds the Oct. 13 to Nov. 23 residency window. His Conversations in Rhythm project digs into guitarist Tal Farlow and drummer Dannie Richmond, two artists who grew up here.
Draughn plans a dozen-plus public sessions, among them a listening lab called Dannie Richmond and the Architecture of Time, plus jam nights, drumming demos and live podcast tapings. The run closes with Lineage in Motion on Nov. 20 at the Greensboro Cultural Center, featuring new pieces drawn from Farlow and Richmond catalogs.
GROW artists receive free studio space and a stipend so residents can watch new work take shape inside the cultural center network. The 2026 roster also spans tapestry folklore, a banjo documentary, sensory workshops, chessboard design, fabric arts and large charcoal drawings across the year.
City arts staff say the Farlow-Richmond focus keeps two hometown lineages in front of students and casual listeners through late fall. Draughn has framed the oral-history pieces as a way for younger players to hear how Gate City musicians shaped national jazz vocabularies. Fans can track workshop times through Creative Greensboro listings as the residency moves toward the Nov. 20 stage date in Greensboro.
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