UIS Speaker Series presents a screening and discussion of "Black Power: The Cry of Jazz"

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series presents, “Black Power: The Cry of Jazz,” a documentary film and discussion.

WHEN: Monday, November 14, 2016, at 6 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: “The Cry of Jazz” is a 1959 documentary film by Ed Bland that connects jazz to African American history. It has been credited with predicting the urban riots of the 1960s and 1970s. In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.” The Library of Congress calls the film “historic and fascinating,” one that “comments on racism and the appropriation of jazz by those who fail to understand its artistic and cultural origins.”

The discussion following the film will focus on how culture and artistic history have depended upon the racist appropriation of the creative work of impoverished and marginalized peoples.

The film presentation and discussion will be moderated by Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Gilman-Opalsky, Ph.D., and Kamau Kemayo, Ph.D., associate professor of African American Studies at UIS.

Gilman-Opalsky hosts a series called Political Art and the Public Sphere, which encourages everyone to consider how “political art” raises provocative social and political questions.

For a list of other upcoming ECCE Speaker Series events and more information, visit www.uis.edu/speakerseries/. All events are free and open to the public.