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To commemorate the opening of their new museum, Spelman College presents an unprecedented exhibition of the work of contemporary African American women artists. Twenty-five of the most outstanding African American women artists have contributed their work to the exhibition "Bearing Witness," ...

To commemorate the opening of their new museum, Spelman College presents an unprecedented exhibition of the work of contemporary African American women artists. Twenty-five of the most outstanding African American women artists have contributed their work to the exhibition "Bearing Witness," celebrating the opening of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art and the 115th anniversary of the college. Works in all mediums are included here-- paintings, sculptures, fiber art, mixed mediums, and prints-- created by some of today's most exceptional artists, among them Lorna Simpson, Faith Ringgold, Carrie Mae Weems, and Betye Saar. Because of its history as the first institution of higher learning for black women, Spelman has become a Mecca, a true wellspring of strength and sustenance for African American women. It is only fitting that these artists gather to honor Spelman College, which has long nurtured the creative and educational vision of black women. The arts have always held a central place at Spelman. The college has an impressive fine arts tradition that began with the assemblage of one of the first college-held collections of works by black artists. The tradition continues with the opening of the college's new Museum of Fine Art, the centerpiece of the new Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center. The museum's 4,500 square feet of exhibition space is designed to house the college's internationally recognized collection of paintings, prints, and photographs, as well as an impressive grouping of African sculptures and textiles. The museum also includes a conservatory, one of the few in the country devoted to preserving African American artworks. With the founding of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the college has made certain that the arts will continue to play an integral part in the education of African American women well into the next century.

Despite the plethora of writing about jazz, little attention has been paid to what musicians themselves wrote and said about their practice. An implicit division of labor has emerged where, for the most part, black artists invent and play music while white writers provide the commentary. Eric Porter ...

Despite the plethora of writing about jazz, little attention has been paid to what musicians themselves wrote and said about their practice. An implicit division of labor has emerged where, for the most part, black artists invent and play music while white writers provide the commentary. Eric Porter overturns this tendency in his creative intellectual history of African American musicians. He foregrounds the often-ignored ideas of these artists, analyzing them in the context of meanings circulating around jazz, as well as in relationship to broader currents in African American thought.

Porter examines several crucial moments in the history of jazz: the formative years of the 1920s and 1930s; the emergence of bebop; the political and experimental projects of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s; and the debates surrounding Jazz at Lincoln Center under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. Louis Armstrong, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Duke Ellington, W.C. Handy, Yusef Lateef, Abbey Lincoln, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, Wadada Leo Smith, Mary Lou Williams, and Reggie Workman also feature prominently in this book. The wealth of information Porter uncovers shows how these musicians have expressed themselves in print; actively shaped the institutional structures through which the music is created, distributed, and consumed, and how they aligned themselves with other artists and activists, and how they were influenced by forces of class and gender.

"What Is This Thing Cal

African-American Performance and Theatre History is an anthology of critical writings that explores the intersections of race, theater, and performance in America. Assembled by two respected scholars in black theater and composed of essays from acknowledged authorities in the field (Joseph Roach and ...

African-American Performance and Theatre History is an anthology of critical writings that explores the intersections of race, theater, and performance in America. Assembled by two respected scholars in black theater and composed of essays from acknowledged authorities in the field (Joseph Roach and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. among other), this volume is organized into four sections representative of the ways black theater, drama, and performance past and present interact and enact continuous social, cultural, and political dialogues. The premise behind the book is that analyzing African-American theater and performance traditions offers insight into how race has operated and continues to operate in American society. The only one-volume collection of its kind, this volume is likely to become the central reference for those studying black theater.