Louis Armstrong Needs You!

Okay, dear friends, I promised big news at the end of the week and here it is: the Louis Armstrong House Museum is up for a major grant through Partners in Preservation (PiP for short). But it's not your typical fill-out-a-grant-application-and-wait kind of deal. PiP has partnered with American Express for a little competition, pitting 40 New York City cultural organization against each other to see who could get the most votes through Facebook and Twitter.

The Louis Armstrong House Museum is lucky enough to be one of the 40! If we win, we would get $250,000 to restore to Louis Armstrong's garden. This is a beautiful space where we have all of our outdoor events, including concerts for kids. But it needs work and this grant would be ideal to get it done.

So how can you help? By voting for us at http://partnersinpreservation.com/. Once there, scroll down the list and find the Louis Armstrong House Museum. If you're already on Facebook, you can just click "Vote with Facebook" and it's done--one click! If not, there's a spot for an e-mail address and password. Fill it in, they'll send you a confirmation letter with an activation link and you'll be good to go.

But here's the next catch: you can vote once a day, every day until the competition ends on May 21! So if you read this, cast a vote and disappear....well, thanks, but we need more! Once a day, a simple click for a vote could go a long way for us to reach our goal. We're up against some big institutions but we have one thing they don't have: Louis Armstrong. Pops has international appeal--hello readers in Sweden, Germany, England, Italy, etc.!--so tell your friends, please, to help us out.

And in the meantime, if you are on Facebook, please "Like" our page here: Louis Armstrong House Museum Facebook Page. I'm helping with it these days and it's going to be filled in the next few weeks with Pops trivia, YouTube videos and special photographs from our collections. Also all sorts of fun stuff like this video I shot yesterday. The PiP campaign was announced at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Afterwards, some of our friends--who just happen to be some of the finest traditional jazz musicians in town--organized on the steps of the Met for an impromptu jam session for Louis. I whipped out my iPhone and though the video is a little skinny, the sound comes through. You'll see Bria Skonberg, Gordon Au, Emily Asher and more, coming out for Pops's cause:



So thank you for reading this and remember, please vote daily. Louis Armstrong needs you! Thanks a million....