Southeastern library to host series on music history
Contact: Tonya Lowentritt
Date: February 1, 2013
HAMMOND - Southeastern Louisiana University's Sims Memorial Library will host a free, six-week
series on the film history of music beginning Feb. 17.
Offered in conjunction with the Tangipahoa Parish Public Library, Hammond Regional
Arts Center, and 90.9 KSLU radio and titled "America's Music: A Film History of Our
Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway," the program is a series featuring
documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions to enlighten audiences about
uniquely American musical genres. Styles covered include blues and gospel, Broadway,
jazz, bluegrass and country, rock n' roll, mambo and hip hop.
Southeastern is one of only 50 sites in the nation to host the program, which
will run through March 28. Beth West, program coordinator and systems, technologies,
and distance librarian at Sims Library, obtained the grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities, which made the program possible.
"America's Music is a national grant initiative that provides DVDs of carefully
selected compelling documentary films, discussion guidelines, original essays by eminent
scholars, extensive resource guides and Web support," she said.
Professor and Head of the Department of History and Political Science William
Robison will serve as the project scholar and lead the discussions, following a 30-minute
video documentary, scheduled each Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in Sims Library, room
240 beginning Feb. 19 through March 26.
The video and lecture program schedule is as follows:
• Feb. 19: Blues and Gospel;
• Feb. 26: Broadway and Tin Pan Alley;
• March 5: Swing Jazz;
• March 12: Bluegrass and Country;
• March 19: Rock;
• March 26: Hip Hop and Mambo.
West said several supplemental programs are also scheduled during the series
and include:
• March 7, 2 p.m., Pottle Auditorium: "Recomposition: From Popular Song
to BeBop Tunes – includes music by Danny Acosta on guitar and Richard A. Schwartz
on saxophone.
• March 14, 1 p.m., Sims Library, 3rd floor: "Women and Jazz during World
War II" featuring Kimberly Guise, curator at the National World War II Museum in New
Orleans, who will talk about women's roles during the war as it relates to the music
of the time.
• March 20, 7 p.m., Vonnie Borden Theatre in D Vickers Hall: "What Makes
a Hit Song" with Communication Professor Joseph Burns and a panel of musicians.
"America's Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass
to Broadway" is a project of the Tribeca Film Institute in collaboration with the
American Library Association, Tribeca Flashpoint, and the Society for American Music.
"America's Music" has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor."
A complete schedule of the program series can be found at www.selu.libguides.com/americasmusiccalendar. For more information, contact West at the library at 985-549-5935 or via e-mail
at Elizabeth.West@southeastern.edu.