Feb. 7, 2006 - The
University of Utah celebrates Black Awareness Month 2006 during
February with an exciting mixture of music, art, theatre, poetry
and performance combined with candid discussion about America’s
economic, social, and political reality in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina.
This year’s celebration highlights the collaboration between
the University of Utah African American Studies Program and Utah’s
Crescent Jazz Festival which brings together Utah and other regional
student musicians with nationally and internationally renowned jazz
artists in workshops and public performances. In addition, the celebration
will provide a venue for discussion, discourse and debate on current
socio-economic and political issues in the aftermath of Katrina,
the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, that devastated
New Orleans and revealed a large underclass population.
Wilfred Samuels, Director of the African American Studies Program
at the University of Utah states, “Black Awareness Month 2006
embodies our very mission which is to celebrate all aspects of African
American history and culture and to provide a venue for discussing
current socio-economic and political issues. Its collaboration with
the Crescent Jazz Festival, which involves music students in Utah--from
middle school to the major universities--takes our outreach efforts
to the highest level.”
Black Awareness Month will feature: Dr. Jerry Ward, Distinguished
Scholar and Professor of English and African World Studies at
Dillard University, a Historical Black College and University
that was nearly destroyed by Katrina. Ward will speak on “Richard
Wright’s ‘Down By the Riverside’: A Predictive
Response To Hurricane Katrina and Other Disasters.”
Kalamu ya Salaam, internationally renowned for his performance
poetry, and founder of Runagate Multimedia, which promotes New
Orleans and African Heritage Cultures worldwide, will read-perform
from his works. Three Katrina evacuees Jacquelyn Herbert, Rhonda
Flot and Ernest Timmons will join ya Salaam in a panel discussion
on “Katrina: Metaphor of the African American Experience.”
Three guest scholars-performers round out the Black Awareness
Month 2006 program. Dr. Theodore McDaniel, Chair of Jazz Music
at Ohio State University, will deliver a keynote on “Jazz:
An American Masterpiece.” Award-winning short fiction writer,
William Hank Lewis (Colgate University), author of In the
Arms of Our Elders and I Got Somebody in Stanton,
will be joined by N. Fareed Mahluli (Indiana University), Director
of Indiana University’s Soul Revue, in “Rossonian
Days,” a reading-jazz performance. Dr. Richard Scharine,
Emeriti, is directing “A Mighty Gents,” a play by
Richard Wesley.
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah will mount
two exhibits in conjunction with the celebration: “Jazz
Legends: Photographs by Herman Leonard” and “Visual
Forms of the Kuba”; both exhibits are part of UMFA’s
permanent collection. Paul Gotay, Esquire, will once again mount
an exhibit from his private collection on African primitive art
and give a lecture: “A Bridge Between Past and Present:
How African Primitive Art Enhances the Quality of Today’s
Life.” In addition the Soweto Gospel Choir will perform
at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus.
For information about all Black Awareness Month events please
visit www.bam.utah.edu.
(Note to the media: Interviews and photo opportunities
on request. Call Wilfred Samuels at 581-3288.)
|
|
