January 9, 2007
Lincoln University to Host Jazz Video
Discussion Series
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA ~ Langston
Hughes Memorial Library will host a free six-part film viewing,
reading and discussion series called “Looking At: Jazz, America’s Art
Form.” The library is one of 50 libraries and nonprofit
organizations nationwide selected to participate in the project’s
pilot program organized by Re:New Media in partnership with
the American Library Association (ALA) and Jazz at Lincoln
Center (JALC). The project is supported by a major grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and locally
by the Hadley Memorial Fund of Kennett Square.
“Looking
At: Jazz” explores the cultural and social history of jazz as it developed
as an art form in the United States. The first program, focusing on New
Orleans and the origins of jazz, will be held on Thursday, January 25, at 7
p.m. All programs will be held in the Dickey Hall Auditorium, next door
to the Langston Hughes Memorial Library on the Lincoln University campus. For
details or to register, please contact Program Director Susan
Pevar, Special Collections Librarian, at 610-932-8300, ext.
3266 or spevar@lincoln.edu.
“We
are delighted to have been chosen as one of the pilot sites
for this unique program focusing on one of the most important
art forms in American history,” said
Ms. Pevar. “This program allows local community
members to share with our students access to in-depth information
from documentary films, along with the expertise of Lincoln’s
own jazz scholar, Dr. Alvin Amos. Lincoln
University is the perfect backdrop for this discussion because
our library can offer a full selection of resources for further
study of any of these topics.”
Additional
films will be discussed on five additional Thursday evenings,
February through April in the Dickey Hall Auditorium. The
programs will cover the Jazz Age and Harlem as a Center for
Jazz (February 8); Jazz Vocalists (February 22); the Swing
Era (March 8); Jazz Innovators: from Bebop to Hard Bop to Cool
and More (March 22); and Latin Jazz and Jazz as an International
Music (April 12). Lincoln University music professor
and New Orleans native, Dr. Alvin Amos, will lead a discussion
of each session’s award-winning documentary
films.
Supplementing
the film series will be a Jazz Workshop on Saturday, April
14, also in the Dickey Hall Auditorium, featuring a presentation
on Jazz and Native Americans by Dr. Ronald Welburn of the University
of Massachusetts, jazz-related exhibits in the Langston Hughes
Memorial Library, and an evening jazz concert by Carl Cornwell
and Unit Circle in the Kennett High School Auditorium, sponsored
by the Hadley Memorial Fund.
Founded
in 1854, Lincoln University is the oldest institution in the
U.S. established for the higher education of African Americans.
