Upcoming Presentations
RAP Music Tour
1910 General Store B&B
2786 Herschel St., Jacksonville, FL
Saturday, Oct.12, 2024
Time: TBA
After reading FitzGerald’s 2020 Florida Book Award winner, Jacksonville and the Roots of Southern Rock, Willowbranch Library employee Ryan Reid got in touch with FitzGerald about ways to celebrate the Riverside music explosion of the late 1960s, which included the formation of the world-reowned Allman Brothers Band.
Reid brought some of the ideas he and FitzGerald had discussed to Riverside-Avondale Preservation director Shannon Blankinship. Blankinship and Reid came up with a plan for a RAP Music Tour—sponsored by Cowford Realty and Design—to be held on Sunday Oct. 12, 2024. Blankinship too said the idea germinated after reading FitzGerald’s 2020 book.
FitzGerald has been invited to participate in the event as a presenter at the 1910 General Store B&B, located at 2786 Herschel St. Time TBA.
Happy Medium Books Café
2724 Park St. (near Park & King)
Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024
Time: 2 pm
Bookstore owner Dana Shutters is stocking two of FitzGerald’s books including 2023’s Guitar Greats of Jacksonville. She has coordinated this presentation with RAP to present FitzGerald’s historical work about the city’s amazing music history, especially the music that grew up in and around Riverside, which FitzGerald witnessed firsthand.
Other News & Events
Ray Charles Place
West Church Street next to LaVilla School of the Arts
After reading Ray Charles’ autobiography Brother Ray, in which Charles mentions having lived at 752 West Church Street in LaVilla, FitzGerald came up with had the idea of naming a Downtown street after the much-beloved entertainer, who began his professional music career here at age 15 after leaving the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. After a year of scuffling, Charles, then known as R.C. Robinson, left for the West Coast, where he slowly but steadily climbed the ladder of worldwide success.
FitzGerald first took the idea of naming a street after Charles in the early 2000s to a city council member and got no response. Twenty years later he mentioned the idea to City Film Commissioner Todd Roobin, who approached council members Jimmy Peluso and Rachman Johnson, who in turn sponsored a bill and finally made it happen. “Being a huge fan of Ray Charles’ since was 10,” FitzGerald says, “I felt I owed him this.”