Last modified: Monday, March 1, 2010
IU Bloomington Diversity Day marked by presentation by jazz educator David Baker, music and discussion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2010
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A keynote presentation by David Baker, Indiana University Distinguished Professor of Music in the Jacobs School of Music, will be a main event at IU Bloomington's second campus-wide diversity celebration, centered on the theme "Toward Civil Conversation."
Baker, a Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize nominee and winner of an Emmy Award in 2003, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, at Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union, 700 E. Seventh St.
Baker has more than 65 recordings, 70 books and 400 articles to his credit, and has written more than 2,000 compositions, including jazz, symphonic and chamber works. He is the founder, conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. The 2009-2010 academic year marks his 43rd year of teaching at IU.
Pianist Margaret Chun, a Bloomington High School North student, will play Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35, Book I." Mezzo-soprano Yuriria Rodriguez, a master's student in the IU Jacobs School of Music, will perform "Cancion con todos," "Miguitas de ternura" and "Pobre la Maria."
The two-day celebration also will include an interactive forum on the theme "Toward Civil Conversation" from 7 to 9 p.m. on March 10 at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union. The forum will bring together faculty, staff and students to discuss two key questions of huge significance to democracy and civic culture: Is civility waning in the United States? If yes, what are some potential consequences?
The forum will be presented against the backdrop of recent events that have occurred in the United States, from Rep. Joe Wilson's shout of "you lie" to President Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress in 2009, to rapper Kanye West's interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Awards in Radio City Music Hall.
Panelists include IU School of Education Dean Gerardo Gonzalez; IU professors Michael Grossberg, Arlene Diaz, Valerie Grim and Joan Pong Linton; Eric Love, director of the Office of Diversity Education, Lucas M. Fields, a law student; and undergraduate students Brandon Johnson and Rachel Kubacki.
The forum will be moderated by Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, an associate professor in the IU Department of Communication and Culture.
Other events will take place across campus to amplify the significance of diversity to IU Bloomington. Campus units will sponsor lectures, classroom discussions and conversations on disability, age, gender, ethnicity, ageism, social class and other aspects of diversity.
For information about IU Bloomington Diversity Day, contact Carolyn Calloway-Thomas, chair of the Diversity Committee, at calloway@indiana.edu.
