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For years now I’ve been interviewing the Coltrane family, beginning in 2021 with an oral history of the ashram performed live at L.A.’s 2220 Arts, and most recently on assignment in Detroit, covering the jazz festival there and a performance of Alice’s compositions.

Among its programs threatened by the cuts is the Council’s “community grant program” that funds “projects that cultivate thoughtful community engagement, build new audiences for the humanities, innovate new methods in the humanities, and advocate for the importance of the humanities in maintaining a robust democracy. The Council encourages projects to reach diverse audiences through a variety of methods – exhibitions and installations, discussion programs, oral history projects, and interpretive tours – that enable audiences to engage in critical reflection and preservation of human histories, cultures, values, and beliefs.”

In putting together this oral history on the indoor roller-skating scene in L.A.,

“They fought fascism and then fought racism,” said Gallagher, who is the founder of the oral history nonprofit Preserving Their Stories.

Tony Best is an archivist and contractor with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who conducted an Academy oral history interview with Maple in early 2020 and remained part of her circle.