{"id":380248,"date":"2026-07-20T23:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T23:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T23:50:11","slug":"caprock-jazz-festival-honors-founder-eric-strong-and-supports-local-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380248\/","title":{"rendered":"Caprock Jazz Festival honors founder Eric Strong and supports local arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The above video shows the top local headlines for the morning of July 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

LUBBOCK, Texas <\/a>\u2013 The Lubbock Roots Historical Arts Council hosted its annual Caprock Jazz Festival, featuring performances by Tom Braxton, Toni Redd and Joy Harris. Among those in attendance were Dr. Ben Alexander and his wife, Dr. Cicely Alexander, who shared that their family\u2019s connection to the festival began years ago after the late Eric Strong invited them to attend.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur daughter competed in the scholarship competition and won first place by playing a classical piece on the piano,\u201d Dr. Cicely Alexander said. \u201cShe was awarded a scholarship when she was only about 12 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t
\n\t\tA life that lifted others: Eric Strong a pillar of Black history in Lubbock \t<\/a><\/p>\n

Eric Strong founded the annual Caprock Jazz Festival, which has brought nationally recognized contemporary jazz performers to the South Plains for many years.<\/p>\n

Alexander said this year\u2019s festival included a special tribute to Eric Strong, as well as a scholarship established in his honor. She also shared that Strong inspired her to pursue graduate school more than two decades ago. \u201cMr. Eric and Mrs. Maria Strong have been so encouraging to my family over the years, along with the Historical Roots organization, in supporting and encouraging our children,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n

Alexander added that her late Aunt Betty Jenkins was a self-taught African American folk artist whose work has been featured by the Historical Roots organization during previous Caprock Jazz festivals. \u201cThe Caprock Jazz Festival has been a blessing to our family more than they will ever know,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Caprock Jazz Festival or the Lubbock Roots Historical Arts Council and its mission to preserve and celebrate Lubbock\u2019s history and arts, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The above video shows the top local headlines for the morning of July 20, 2026. LUBBOCK, Texas \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[134353,168,170,169],"class_list":["post-380248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-caprock-jazz-festival-lubbock-roots-historical-arts-council-eric-strong-scholarship-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}