All Events Free and Open to the Public
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24th
CAAAS Sponsored Brown Bag
The African American Culture Room in the Texas Union
12:00 - 1:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24th
"Notes Towards the 51st (dream) state"
University of Texas Winship Bldg. Rm 2.112
7-9 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27th
Brown Bag Co-sponsored by the Zachary T. Scott Chair
University of Texas Winship Bldg. Rm. 1.114
11:45 AM - 1:00 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29th
Symposium Panel
LBJ Library and Museum Atrium
9:30 - 11:30 AM "Democrary and the Arts"
What role does art play in American democracy? How does the artist/citizen contribute to civic dialogue? How do the arts rehearse citizens for democratic life?
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29th
Keynote Performance with Local Poets
LBJ Library and Museum
6:00 - 7:30 PM
Biography
Sekou Sundiata is a poet who writes for print, performance, music, and theater. He has been a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida), and the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York. He was featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS series on poetry, “The Language of Life,” and as part of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam on HBO. Sundiata is currently a professor at Eugene Lang College in New York City.
Sundiata has recorded and performed his poetry with a range of musicians, including Craig Harris, David Murray, Nona Hendryx and Vernon Reid. His first recording, “The Blue Oneness of Dreams” (Mouth Almighty/Mercury), and its successor, “longstoryshort” (Righteous Babe Records), are both rich with the sounds of blues, funk, jazz, and African and Afro-Caribbean percussion. Sundiata has written and performed in the highly acclaimed performance theater works: The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, which received three AUDELCO Awards and a BESSIE Award; The Mystery of Love; and Udu. Sundiata’s most recent theatrical piece, “blessing the boats,” brings the story of five tumultuous years of his life into perspective as it relates his experience with the life-threatening illness and recovery of kidney failure and organ transplant. This work opened in November 2002 and continues to tour nationally.Sundiata is currently working on the 51st (dream) state, a music/theater piece that contemplates America’s national identity, its power in the world, and its guiding mythologies. The work is being developed through community engagement activities at colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and will premiere in April 2006 at Stanford Lively Arts (Stanford, CA).