Indiana University's African American Arts Institute has announced its concert season for 2009-10, which has been given the theme "Above and Beyond."

An academic conference Nov. 13-14 at IU Bloomington, "Reclaiming the Right to Rock: Black Experiences in Rock Music," brings together black rock musicians from different generations and regions with music critics and scholars to discuss the socio-political history, musical developments and the future of the genre.

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).

Indiana University's African American Arts Institute is presenting the annual spring concert by its IU Soul Revue on Saturday, May 2, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

IU's African American Dance Company will host its 35th Annual Spring Concert on Saturday (April 4) at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave., in downtown Bloomington.

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.

Indiana University Bloomington will celebrate Black History Month with a diverse calendar of events, including a Feb. 23 lecture by one of America's most provocative intellectuals, Cornel West.

The African American Dance Company of Indiana University's African American Arts Institute will present its annual studio concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 in the Willkie Auditorium on the IU Bloomington campus.

Indiana University's African American Arts Institute presents the 15th annual "A Potpourri of Arts in the African American Tradition" concert on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.

A Grammy Foundation grant to IU's Archives of African American Music and Culture will enable it to digitally preserve and make accessible nearly 300 hours of interviews with rhythm and blues pioneers.

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.

The IU Soul Revue of Indiana University's African American Arts Institute will present its annual spring concert on Saturday, April 12. The show's theme is "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing."

IU's African American Arts Institute will present "Worlds Collide: Spirit, Soul & Body," an evening of spoken word and visual art, on Monday, Feb. 25 in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.

In celebration of Indiana University's black history, and in collaboration with the Mathers Museum of World Cultures and the IU Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration and Black History Month committees, the African American Arts Institute presents a special exhibition, "Bridgwaters Family Photographs."

Audrey Thomas McCluskey already was busy when she accepted an interim appointment to direct the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University Bloomington.

Acclaimed African American filmmaker Julie Dash will visit Indiana University Bloomington on Oct. 3-4. She will give a public lecture and also speak at a screening of her award-winning biography of Civil Rights heroine Rosa Parks.

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 Indiana University Commission on Multicultural Understanding recently honored five individuals and one program with its 2006-07 COMU awards. The awards, created in 1994, are given in recognition of individuals or groups actively supporting, participating in or encouraging the exploration of cultural diversity in and around the Indiana University Bloomington campus.

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.

Two upcoming events at the Indiana University African American Arts Institute will focus on music, dance and scholarship by IU faculty members.

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.