Consideringthe history of labor in the U.S., it is not surprising how much art, and music in particular, is born out of the working class experience. Join th Chicago Labor and Arts festival for an evening featuring a panel discussion poetry and music. The panel will discuss the question "Is there a working class music?"
Considering the history of labor in the U.S., it is not surprising how much art, and music in particular, is born out of the working class experience. Join th Chicago Labor and Arts festival for an evening featuring a panel discussion poetry and music. The panel will discuss the question "Is there a working class music?"
The participants include Craig Werner, Danny Alexander, Bucky Halker and Sterling Plumpp. It's a late night at the Guild. The open mic begins at 7:30, panel discussion at 8 and music performance at 9:30 PM. You'll be glad you stayed up for it. Poet and Educator Sterling Plumpp is known worldwide for his blues and jazz based poetry. Professor Plumpp has recieved the Carl Sandburg Award and other honors for his critically acclaimed wrok including Blues Narratives (Tia Chucha Press 1999), Black Rituals (Third World Press, 1987) and Ornate with smoke and blues: The story always untold (Third World Press 1998). Plumpp has been a vital influence for Chicago writers for years. Professor Craig Werner is an author and member of the multicultural arts group Abecation. Werner explores the relationship between African-American music, literature, and philosophy and comparative approaches to modern American culture. His books include Playing the Changes: From Afro-Modernism to the Jazz Impulse (University of Illinois Press 1994) and A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America (Plume 1999). Danny Alexander is a writer and teacher living in Kansas City. An associate editor of Rock &Rap Confidential, Alexander has written about music and politics for The Source, Denver's Westword, the Huston Press, Miami New Times, Kansas Cities Pitchweekly and the Kansas City Star. Alexander currently at work on a memoir/essay regaurding the lessons he's learned slipping out of the American middle.