UWS Music Venue Accused Of Racially Profiling Band

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side music venue is apologizing after fans said they saw performers being racially profiled.

The James Brandon Lewis Trio was mingling with its audience Friday night at the Triad Theater on West 72nd Street when members of the band were asked about a missing wireless microphone, fan Robin D.G. Kelley said in a now-viral social media post. The band had just kicked off its fall tour at the Upper West Side venue.

Kelley, a history professor at UCLA, said that the employee was being accusatory and asked to search the band's belongings for the microphone. The professor also said the band was not paid upon leaving the Triad.

"That’s how we left it. The James Brandon Lewis Trio played a magnificent set and they left The Triad humiliated, incensed over their treatment, and without their earnings," Kelley said in his Facebook post.

Kelley's post was later shared to Twitter by his daughter. The Twitter post was retweeted nearly 2,000 times. Elleza Kelley said the incident demonstrated the "despicable and unbearably banal reality of 'gigging while black.'"

The Triad Theater suspended the employee — who was a freelance staff member who worked only a few shows per week — and will continue to investigate the band's treatment, it said in a statement released Tuesday.

"In the 23-year history of the Triad Theater we have played host to over 5,000 artists from all cultural backgrounds without complaint and with universal positive feedback from artists on their treatment in our venue," the statement reads.

"The management of the Triad Theater does not condone or tolerate unacceptable behavior."

The Triad's owner Peter Martin elaborated on the incident in an interview with the West Side Rag, saying he doesn't think the employee who confronted the James Brandon Lewis Trio is racist, but that he probably panicked upon realizing the $600 wireless microphone had gone missing.

Martin told the West Side Rag that the backlash from the incident has been "awful" and "horrendous."

Since the theater's apology, Elleza Kelley issued a follow-up to her viral tweet saying there's "no need to boycott" the venue.

"Of course, this is a larger issue, but their response is a step in the right direction and should be recognized," Kelley said in her post.

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