- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
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.