Kirk grew up in Texas and lived in California before moving to the East Coast in 1970 with husband Rahsaan Roland Kirk, a jazz great known for playing multiple horns simultaneously. She managed his career. Kirk was already a jazz fan before marriage, but her husband introduced her to many musicians and venues, and jazz history. When Rahsaan died in the 1970s, he left Dorthaan with three children and no job. She turned her contacts in the jazz world into a career, including playing a pivotal role in the startup of WBGO Jazz Radio in Newark, New Jersey. Kirk has been a major force at WBGO—the only full-time jazz format station in New York and New Jersey—working in various roles for more than four decades. Called “Newark’s First Lady of Jazz,” she has been active for nearly half a century as a curator and producer of jazz events and community organizer, primarily in and around Newark, New Jersey. Dorthaan’s Place is one of many projects—a monthly brunch series at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Nico Kitchen & Bar started in 2012. She recently hosted the Bright Moments Podcast, a storytelling project. Her extraordinary support for musicians, her constant and creative engagement of the community in the jazz music she loves, and her commitment to jazz education for children, including the WBGO Kids Jazz concert series, have earned her multiple awards. Honoring her jazz advocacy, she was named Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2020—the highest honor in jazz.