On August 28, 1963, in front of an estimated 250,000 people in the Washington D.C. mall, Martin Luther King Jr. gave what would become the most famous speech in civil […]
Q&A with The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers editor Brian Dolinar
Brian Dolinar is a scholar of African American literature and culture from the Depression era. He is the editor of The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers. We asked him […]
Shining a spotlight on women in the civil rights movement
During the historic March on Washington in late August of 1963, hundreds of thousands filled the National Mall and many powerful voices of the civil rights movement took to the podium. Few […]
Q&A with In Her Own Words author Jennifer Kelly
Jennifer Kelly is director of choral activities and associate professor of music at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, she is also the artistic director of the Concord Chamber Singers and the author of […]
New Editor Appointed for American Music
We’re very pleased to announce that Michael Pisani will be the next Editor of our journal, American Music, beginning in January 2014. Pisani, a renowned scholar, author, pianist, and conductor, brings […]
Happy birthday Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920. The celebrated author famously claimed to remember his own birth. Jonathan R. Eller, director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at […]
Remembering jazz pianist and author Marian McPartland
Jazz performer and musical ambassador Marian McPartland, passed away this week at her home in Port Washington, N.Y. at age 95. In addition to a performance career that took off […]
The art of José Gamaliel González on display in Chicago
Saturday, August 24 marks the final day of the exhibit José Gamaliel González: The Artist at 80 at the Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery in Chicago. Dr. Marc Zimmerman, […]
Reconsidering the Chicago School of architecture
Thomas Leslie, author of Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934, recently spoke with WGLT-FM public radio about what architecture says not only about a city’s history, but about interpreting an urban identity. “Chicago skyscrapers […]
Happy birthday to Ola Belle Reed
Although there is some slight dispute over her exact birthday, records say Ola Belle Campbell Reed, was born on August 18, 1916, in Lansing, North Carolina. She was the fourth of […]
Q&A with Charles Ives in the Mirror author David C. Paul
David C. Paul is an assistant professor of musicology and theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Charles Ives in the Mirror: American Histories of an […]
Illinois Press director Regier on ‘On War’ in Chronicle of Higher Education
University of Illinois Press director Willis G. Regier writes about German-Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, and the influential tome On War, in the Chronicle of Higher Education. With protracted wars in […]