MEDIA RELEASES

Dominican University will present the first national academic symposium on the legacy of blues and gospel music the weekend of May 22 – 24. Focusing on the social and economic environments in which both musical genres evolved and their enduring impact on contemporary music and society, Blues and the Spirit will feature distinguished scholars of African American music and culture, nationally known and locally revered blues and gospel performers, a Chicago blues club crawl, a gospel workshop, a tour of Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood and an exhibit of rare photographs and video of legendary blues performers. The highlight of the weekend will be a concert by Otis Clay and Sharon Lewis on Friday, May 23 in Lund Auditorium, 7900 W. Division Street, River Forest.

“As the blues capital of the world and the birthplace of modern gospel music, Chicago is the ideal place to present the first national conference on these two revolutionary art forms,” said Dr. Janice Monti, chair of Dominican University’s sociology department and director of the symposium. “This conference will give attendees a rare comprehensive overview of the shared historical roots of the blues, often referred to as ‘the devil’s music,’ and church-based, rafter-raising gospel.”

 The symposium will kick off on Thursday, May 22 with a motorcoach tour of Chicago’s southside Bronzeville neighborhood led by Dr. Fannie Rushing, associate professor of history at Benedictine University and an expert on the neighborhood’s historical, political and cultural significance. The tour will be followed by an Evening Elders Council plenary featuring Sterling Plumpp, poet and professor emeritus in English and African American studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago; Timuel Black, educator, Chicago community leader, oral historian, and author of Bridges of Memory: Chicago’s First Wave of Great Migration; Paul Garon, and Jim O’Neal, co-founders of Living Blues Magazine; Mrs. Marie Dixon, CEO of the Blues Heaven Foundation and widow of Chicago blues icon Willie Dixon; George Bailey, poet, musician and a member of the English faculty at Columbia College; and Barry Dolins, deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, the organization responsible for the city’s Blues, Gospel and Jazz festivals.

The symposium continues on Friday, May 23 with a keynote address titled “From the Margins to the Mainstream: Issues of Identity, Aesthetics and Meaning in Black Popular Music” by Portia Maultsby, composer, pianist and professor of ethnomusicology and folklore at Indiana University.

Plenary and panel discussions will be presented throughout Friday on topics such as The Black Ensemble Theatre, the Mississippi Blues Trail, the roles and responsibilities of writers who chronicle the blues, and preserving the Chicago legacy. Panelists will include Salim Muwakkil, editor of In These Times; David Whiteis, writer, educator and recipient of the Keeping the Blues Alive Award from the Blues Foundation in 2001; and Gayle Dean Wardlow, renowned collector of pre-war blues records and author of Chasin’ The Devil’s Music, which received a 2005 Blues Foundation Award. In addition, Horace Maxile, associate director of research at Columbia College’s Center for Black Music Research, will deliver a keynote address on the influence of blues on popular American music.

A reception for an exhibit featuring rare photographs of blues musicians of Chicago’s 1960s heyday by the late photographer Raeburn Flerlage, never-before-seen video footage of Chicago’s historic Maxwell Street, and the work of folk artist and musician Frank Scott Jr. will be held in the O’Connor Art Gallery Friday afternoon. The reception will be accompanied by blues guitarist James Wheeler who has backed up B.B. King, Millie Jackson and Otis Clay, and blues bassist Bob Stroger, whose history includes performances and recordings with Otis Rush, Eddie Clearwater and Sunnyland Slim.

Friday’s schedule will close with the concert by Otis Clay and Sharon Lewis at 7:30 p.m. A global ambassador for Chicago’s soul-blues sound, Clay remains true to the city’s mid-60s traditions. His performances combine vocal intensity, electric stage presence and the emotional punch of a Sunday revival meeting. Sharon Lewis, a popular Chicago blues diva who has performed with Koko Taylor, Sons Seals and Billy Branch, will open the concert with a bang.

Saturday’s sessions will open with a keynote address titled “Spirits That Dwell in Deep Woods: Music and Black Religious Experience” by James Abbington, a theologian and musicologist at Emory University and the executive director of the African American Sacred Music Series of gospel workshops offered across the country. Abbington will also present a gospel workshop later in the morning.

Additional Saturday programming will include sessions on the deconstruction of the Delta blues by Adam Gussow of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi; the history of gospel music in Chicago by Bob Marovich, host of the Gospel Memories Radio Show on WLUW; and an insider’s perspective of today’s music industry by Bob Koester, founder of Chicago’s independent Delmark Records, Bob Jones, Chicago songwriter and promoter; and Bob Davis, CEO of Soul Patrol.

A panel on blues education will be led by Billy Branch, preeminent blues harpist and founding architect of the Blues-in-the-Schools programs which have been presented in Chicago public schools and across the country for over 20 years, and will include Fernando Jones, founder of the blues education initiative Blues Kids of America and the director of Columbia College’s Blues Ensemble; and Nathaniel Dove, director of the Bakersfield (CA) Blues Society.

A panel discussion titled “I’ve Lived the Life I Sing About in My Songs” will feature Larry Taylor, Chicago singer, drummer and stepson of Eddie Taylor Sr; classic Chicago blues artist Billy Boy Arnold, soul/blues performer Stan Mosley, and Sharon Lewis.

A multimedia presentation titled “The Spoken Word in Black Music Cultures from Griots to MCs” will be led by Stephanie Shonekan, professor of humanities and cultural studies and director of the Black world studies program at Columbia College, and will include performances by local hip hop artists, poets and krunk dancers.

The symposium will end with an authentic Chicago blues club crawl.

Full registration for this symposium is $150, which includes all sessions, the tour of Bronzeville, the concert with Otis Clay and Sharon Lewis, and the club crawl. Friday-only and Saturday-only registrations are $50 and do not include the concert or club crawl. The tour of Bronzeville is $30. For more information, please contact Dr. Janice Monti at 708-524-6050 or at bluesandthespirit@dom.edu or visit the website at www.dom.edu/bluesandthespirit.

This symposium is made possible in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Illinois General Assembly.