Join us Tuesday-Friday this week for World Cafe’s special Sense of Place of Boston. Here’s some of the amazing content this week capping off on Friday with our own Albert O featured.

Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 – Sense of Place, Boston: Club Passim

Nestled in an alley in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, there’s a music venue that’s been a sanctuary for folk musicians and fans for over 60 years. On the next World Cafe, as part of the Sense of Place Boston series, visit Club Passim, the intimate venue where Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and many more legends have graced the stage. Managing director Matt Smith shares the story of Club Passim and how the venue has worked to expand the traditional definition of folk music.

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 – Sense of Place, Boston Encore: Jonatha Brooke

For 3 decades, Jonatha Brooke has followed her own path as a singer songwriter – first in the duo The Story and then as a solo artist – and it all began in Boston. She has penned a number of albums, an off Broadway one woman show and at the time of her 2019 visit to World Cafe, an EP called Imposter. She reveals the advice she would have given her younger self in an encore edition of World Cafe.

Thursday, January 23rd, 2025 – Sense of Place, Boston: Wally’s Jazz Cafe

Wally’s Jazz Cafe is a tiny live room, sitting among a sea of brick row homes in Boston. Founder Joseph Walcott launched the business in 1947, wanting to create a place where Black folks could enjoy jazz alongside Whites – his was the first integrated club – and where students could play alongside more experienced musicians. His great grandson, Frank Poindexter, runs the club alongside his mother and brothers and joins World Cafe to discuss how they have kept Joseph Walcott’s dream going.

Friday, January 24th, 2025 – Sense of Place, Boston: Josh Kantor Fenway Park and WUMB ‘Top 5’

The Boston Red Sox may be the main attraction at Fenway Park, the oldest MLB stadium in the country, but there’s another performance going on during game day. In another dispatch from World Cafe’s Sense of Place Boston series, you’ll meet Josh Kantor, the organist at Fenway Park since 2003. Kantor explains how he got the job, how he fields song requests, and why it helps to know the ins and outs of baseball. PLUS, what songs come to mind when you think about Boston? WUMB’s Albert O, host of Afternoons with Albert O., shares the essentials.

You can hear World Cafe Weeknights at 10 here on WUMB.