As part of an Indiana University conference on black experiences in rock music, the producer of the Tony Award-winning musical Passing Strange will speak after a screening of a filmed version of the production.

This is the first year for Camp S.O.U.L. (Students Obtaining Unique musical Levels) at Indiana University under the leadership of Professor Nathanael Fareed Mahluli, director of the IU Soul Revue. Underrepresented high school students from the state of Indiana will participate in a week-long camp. The culminating event will be a free concert at 11 a.m. Friday (June 19).

An Indiana University professor was closely involved with planning and development for "Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy," a groundbreaking, two-week festival at Carnegie Hall celebrating African American culture. The festival, which began March 4 and runs through March 23, was conceptualized and curated by renowned soprano Jessye Norman.

To create a space for black voices to be heard artistically and start a meaningful dialogue about black identity in the theatre, Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Theatre and Drama will host the university's first-ever conference (Aug. 1-3) devoted solely to black theatre projects. The 2008 IU Mini-Conference on Black Theatre seeks to stimulate scholarship and discussion about theatre by and for people of African descent, said conference organizer Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe.

Indiana University's African American Arts Institute is honoring keyboardist, composer, producer and arranger Isaiah Sanders, who has performed with the popular singing group, The Emotions, as well as Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Al Green and many other musical performers.

The African American Dance Company of Indiana University's African American Arts Institute will present its annual spring concert on April 14.

The IU African American Arts Institute, in collaboration with the IU School of Music and the Archives of African American Music and Culture, will present the annual concert, "Extensions of the Tradition," on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in Auer Hall of the IU Jacobs School of Music.

IU's African American Arts Institute presents the 13th annual "A Potpourri of Arts in the African American Tradition" concert on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 East Kirkwood Ave.

IU's African American Arts Institute announced the addition of Keith D. McCutchen to its artistic faculty. McCutchen, an accomplished musical director, jazz musician, composer and pianist, will direct the institute's African American Choral Ensemble. He succeeds James Mumford, who retired this spring.

Lecture Notes includes lectures that will be held at Indiana University's Bloomington campus Sept. 13-24, 2006. The events are all open to the public.

Michael A. McRobbie, IU interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, highlighted to the Indiana University Board of Trustees today (Aug. 18) four particularly distinguished professors who are among new appointees to the Bloomington faculty.

Janet Williams, an Indiana University School of Music alumna who has delighted audiences and critics internationally, will receive the IU African American Arts Institute's Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award.

Crash, a provocative film that received the Oscar this year for best picture, depicted the sometimes volatile intersections of race relations in Los Angeles and, ultimately, the United States. A major conference next week organized by Indiana University will examine the different shades of race and highlight the ways in which this difficult subject can be discussed more broadly.

Two IU professors hope their new 706-page book, African American Music: An Introduction (Routledge, 2006), will create greater awareness about the music and its origins, as well as issues distinctive to each genre. They wrote several of the book's 30 essays, along with 24 other authors, in what they believe is the most comprehensive examination of African American music -- sacred and secular -- from the days of slavery to the present, representing a wide array of perspectives.

Indiana University's thriving -- and ever-growing -- arts scene will be in full bloom during ArtsWeek, the annual campus-community arts festival in Bloomington, Ind., now celebrating its 22nd year. ArtsWeek 2006, which will be held from Thursday (Feb. 23) to March 5, will offer audiences a cornucopia of opportunities to experience the best and most exciting creative work on and around campus and the community. The festivities include the world premiere of Ned Rorem's opera Our Town, as well as performances by such touring headliners as the Urban Bush Women and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

A lecture by acclaimed actor James Earl Jones, a day-long Africana festival and a lecture on Americans' views about race and racism will highlight the celebration of Black History Month at IU Bloomington. Nearly all events are free and open to the public.

IU Bloomington will observe the 20th anniversary of the first celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 16 with a special theme, "The Power of One: Commitment, Challenge and Change," and also will remember contributions made by another civil rights pioneer, the late Rosa Parks.

Maulana Karenga, founder of Kwanzaa, an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated in African communities worldwide, will be the featured speaker at Indiana University Bloomington's Pre-Kwanzaa Celebration on Dec.1.

IU's African American Arts Institute will present the 12th annual "A Potpourri of Arts in the African American Tradition" concert on Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. in Bloomington.

William H. Wiggins Jr., professor emeritus of African American and African Diaspora studies and folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington, will serve as interim director of the Faculty and Staff for Student Excellence Mentoring Program, following the retirement of June Cargile, the founder and first director of the award-winning program.

An IU Bloomington professor who developed the first for-credit college course on the Motown Record Corp. is teaching the course daily during the first summer session. It focuses on the influential recording label in its golden age, from 1959 to 1972 in Detroit.

The IU African American Arts Institute, in collaboration with the IU School of Music and the Archives of African American Music and Culture, will present the musical concert, "Extensions of the Tradition," on Sunday, Feb. 27. In celebration of the African American Arts Institute's 30th anniversary year, the concert will feature works by composers who have present or past involvement with it.

The Indiana University African American Dance Company will host its Eighth Annual Dance Workshop on Feb. 18-19 at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.