Detailed Event Description by Location
Programs at EIU	Programs Co-sponsored with Area Libraries
Related Programming - EIU Campus	Related Programming - East Central Illinois

Programs Co-sponsored with Area Public Libraries

Danville Public Library

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: Episode 1, Feel Like Going Home
Say Amen, Somebody
Dr. Michael Loudon

Monday, Feb. 4, 2013, 7-9 p.m.
Dr. Loudon will introduce and lead discussion on the films, and a musical presentation is planned. Related programming will include a screening of David Gracon’s Walls of Sound: A Look Inside the House of Records at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 31; and “Two Views of the Blues: A Photographic Exhibit of Great Blues Musicians,” by David Nolan and Jack Van Camp. The public is welcome. The Danville Public Library is located at 319 N. Vermilion St., Danville, IL.

Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues, produced and directed by Martin Scorsese, 2004; Grammy Award Winner, Best Historical Album; Emmy Award Nomination Outstanding Non-Fiction Series; Emmy Award Winner Outstanding Cinematography for Non-Fiction Program. Episode 1 of Scorsese’s seven-part series is a lyrical journey into the landscape and origins of the blues. The film explores the birth of the blues out of the hard-time experiences of black farmers and cotton workers in the Mississippi Delta. On-screen subtitles of the bleak lyrics of primitive blues songs attest to the subsistence existence of early blues musicians and demonstrate the blues as “storytelling through music.” Moving between past and present, contemporary blues musician Corey Harris serves as on-camera guide, speaking with artists like Willie King and Sam Carr. The film introduces the great early blues masters Son House, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and John Lee Hooker.

Say Amen, Somebody, produced and directed by George T. Nieremberg, 1983; *N.E.H. sponsored; Telluride, New York, Toronto, London, Cannes Film Festivals; Boston Society of Film Critics Best Documentary of the Year; One of 10 Best Films of the Year: People Magazine, Rolling Stone, Miami-Herald, At the Movies, Chicago Sun Times. This film features three figures who pioneered the golden age of gospel music: Willie Mae Ford Smith, Thomas A. Dorsey and Sallie Martin. Each played influential roles in creating gospel music as we know it today: Dorsey’s songs are credited with marrying blues music and rhythms with religious and inspirational lyrics; Martin helped him create a national training ground and market for gospel singing; and “Mother” Smith became one of its first and most proficient soloists.

Paris Public Library

The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Episode 4, Plugging In
Mr. Mark Rubel

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, 6-8 p.m., St. Mary’s Parish Hall
Mr. Rubel will introduce and lead discussion on the film, and a musical presentation is planned. The public is welcome. St. Mary’s Parish Hall is located at 528 N. Main St., Paris, IL.

The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Susan Steinberg, 1995; Emmy nomination; C.I.N.E. Golden Eagle Award winner. This episode from the comprehensive 10-part series centers on the reinvention of rock in the 1960s. As the ‘60s began, rock ‘n’ roll was generally considered mindless teenage music. This documentary explores the seismic shifts in rock music that changed American culture in that decade. The film combines electrifying performance footage with commentary from critics and musicians including Arlo Guthrie, Judi Collins, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townsend. The film opens in Greenwich Village, where a burgeoning folk scene birthed the career of singer songwriter Bob Dylan. A poet who cited Dylan Thomas as well as Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie as influences, Dylan rose to fame with lyrics that took aim at America’s social ills. A fateful meeting between Dylan and the Beatles in London moved the Beatles toward greater experimentation with lyrics and led Dylan to expand musically. His decision to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival shocked and dismayed many, but marked a turning point in rock history and revolutionized the power of rock music to communicate ideas. The film goes on to chronicle the emergence of ‘60s California groups. The Beach Boys’ musically intricate Pet Sounds proved pop music could be as sophisticated as classical. As albums became artworks and the rise of FM radio showcased album cuts rather than hit singles, rock moved further toward the level of art. The rise of guitarist Jimi Hendrix, called “the first proper electronic rock composer,” continued to push rock’s boundaries. The Monterey Pop Festival of 1967 heralded the emergence of the rock concert as an art form.

Marshall Public Library

High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music
Dr. Patricia Poulter

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER Thursday, Feb. 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Dr. Poulter will introduce and lead discussion on the film, and a musical presentation is planned. The public is welcome. The Marshall Public Library is located at 612 Archer Ave., Marshall, IL.

High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music, Rachel Liebling, 1994; Chicago International Film Festival Gold Plaque; Atlanta Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary; Houston International Film Festival, Silver Award; American Film Festival Red Ribbon. This documentary presents the history of this subgenre of country music through the story of Bill Monroe, considered the father of bluegrass. Weaving archival footage and photographs from the 1930s and ‘40s with toe-tapping live performances, the film traces the origins of bluegrass music from the Kentucky hills of Appalachia through the innovations that shaped its current form. The film provides on-camera commentary by bluegrass greats including Mac Wiseman and Jimmy Martin, as well as rarely seen tapes of Flatt and Scruggs. The history of bluegrass is inseparable from the history of Appalachia and the agricultural south in the 20th century. The film recounts the social changes that shaped their music in modern times: the coming of the railroads; the growth of mass market catalogs selling exotic instruments like the mandolin and Hawaiian steel guitar; traveling shows that introduced Tin Pan Alley songs and ragtime and early jazz from the cities; the new media of radio and phonographs; and the Depression, which forced young men from farms to seek work in cities. Monroe’s music melded the Scots-Irish traditional melodies he heard as a child with new instrumentation, driving contemporary rhythms and a unique high-pitched vocal style that became known as the “high lonesome” sound.

Decatur Public Library

Latin Music USA, Episode One: Bridges
From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale
Mr. Jamie V. Ryan

Monday, March 4, 2013, 6-8 p.m.
Mr. Ryan will introduce and lead discussion on the films, and a musical presentation is planned. The public is welcome. The Decatur Public Library is located at 130 N. Franklin St., Decatur, IL.

Latin Music USA, Pamela A. Aguilar and Daniel McCabe, 2009; IDA Documentary Award, Limited Series (premiered on PBS). This series, narrated by Jimmy Smits, traces the vibrant history of Latin music’s expression and influence in America. Episode One presents the story of Afro-Cuban jazz and mambo as they developed in the dance halls and nightclubs of New York City. This film excerpt explores mambo, the Cuban hybrid of traditional danson fused with syncopated Afro-Caribbean rhythms that migrated to New York City from Havana in the 1940s. Further innovated by the great barrio-born Latin band leaders of the time, mambo became a music and dance craze that swept the country. The film explores how mambo loosened the stiff social and musical rules of the “country club culture” of the time. Mambo’s popularity across classes and ethnic groups integrated the dance floor and helped prepare the way for a more open and less restrictive social interaction between the sexes.

From Mambo to Hip Hop: A South Bronx Tale, Henry Chalfant, Elena Martinez and Steve Zeitlin, 2006; ALMA Award, Best Television Documentary. The documentary celebrates the cultural life of one of America’s worst urban slums in the 1970s, New York’s South Bronx, where hip hop originated. Hip hop was created and performed first by Jamaican and African-American youth, and then Latinos, in abandoned parks, razed neighborhoods and burned-out buildings as an alternative to gang violence. Break dance competitions and battles of songs and words redirected gang fighting into creative expression. Through candid and often humorous interviews with hip hop’s founding artists and performers, the film demonstrates how hip hop, like mambo before it, both reflected and defied the ghetto status and economic deprivation of its creators.

 

Shelbyville Public Library

Broadway: The American Musical, Episode 2: Syncopated City (1919-1933)
Dr. Allen Lanham

Monday, March 18, 2013, 7-9 p.m.
Dr. Lanham will introduce and lead discussion on the film, and a musical
presentation is planned. The public is welcome. The Shelbyville Public Library is located at 154 N. Broadway Ave., Shelbyville, IL.

Broadway: The American Musical, produced by Michael Cantor, 2004, *N.E.H. sponsored; Emmy, Outstanding Nonfiction Series; Emmy, Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Program; Golden Satellite Award, Best Documentary DVD. Episode Two of this award-winning six-part series on the history of Broadway focuses on the 1920s, Broadway’s most prolific era. Narrated by Julie Andrews, it features on-camera commentary by historians, as well as performers, writers and critics including Stephen Sondheim, Andre de Shields and John Lahr. Broadway during the Jazz Age showcased the sweeping changes transforming American culture: new roles for women; the mixing of social classes in Prohibition-era speakeasies; new creative opportunities for African Americans in jazz clubs and music halls. Many of the new word- and musicsmiths writing for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway’s musical revues were immigrants from Eastern Europe. Their syncopated rhythms borrowed from jazz; their lyrics reflected a vibrant new American argot; their songs became big business. America’s exuberant culture of optimism was reflected in the plucky heroines of Broadway shows, and Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s successful all-black revue broke the Broadway color barrier. But the success of the “talkies,” which lured musical talent to Hollywood, and the collapse of Wall Street in 1929 brought Broadway to its knees and the Jazz Age to a crashing halt. It would return to its feet in differing forms every decade or so thereafter.

Robinson Public Library

Ken Burns’ Jazz: Episode 6: Swing, the Velocity of Celebration
International Sweethearts of Rhythm
Dr. Newton Key

Thursday, March 21, 2013, 5-7 p.m.
Dr. Key will introduce and lead discussion on the films, and a musical presentation is planned. The public is welcome. The Robinson Public Library is located at 606 N. Jefferson St., Robinson, IL.

Ken Burns’ Jazz, Ken Burns, 2001; *N.E.H. sponsored; five Emmy nominations; Television Critics Association Award, Outstanding Achievement; Writers’ Guild of American Award, Best Documentary. Episode 6 picks up swing jazz in the late 1930s. As the Depression deepens, swing thrives, becoming popular across all social classes. While some think the music is becoming too commercialized, in Kansas City a new sound is emerging that will redefine swing. This segment of the 90-minute episode begins in 1936. Count Basie arrives in New York City, bringing the signature up-tempo blues-influenced sound and unique syncopation he developed playing clubs in Kansas City. Jazz history is made when Benny Goodman brings his swing band to Carnegie Hall. By the end of the summer 1938, Basie was considered America’s premiere swing band. Records, radio shows and film performances brought his joyous alternative to commercial swing to the world.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, 1986; Oberhausen, Leipzig, New York Film Festivals; Silver Award, Philadelphia Film Festival; Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival. This documentary tells the little-known story of a multi-racial all-women swing band that became a sensation in the 1940s. A band that performed throughout the South to raise money for its school in Piney Woods, Miss., evolved into the Sweethearts of Rhythm after the Depression. When the outbreak of World War II removed male musicians from the scene, the group expanded, riding the swing craze to national success in sold-out performances in theaters across the country. The 16-member band of 14- to 19-year-olds embraced members from different races and many of the best female musicians of its day. The film records the often wry and humorous recollections of band members as they reflect on their experiences in the music world.