 The East functioned as home to an independent African-centered school named Uhuru Sasa Shule (whose name translates to "Freedom Now" in Kiswahili, that emerged in response to the 1968 Ocean-Hill Brownsville school crisis.The East was also an important art center in Brooklyn, serving as a weekend jazz club, salon, and concert venue for Black musicians and rivaling the popular clubs and theaters of Harlem.It hosted performers including the Last Poets, Freddie Hubbard, Betty Carter, McCoy Tyner, Max Roach, Sun Ra, Lee Morgan, and Roy Ayers.