March 2002
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African American musicians reflect on what is this thing called jazz?
Duke Ellington rejected it, Charles Mingus was ambivalent about it, and Wynton Marsalis is okay with it. For many African American musicians the word “jazz” is a double-edged term, sometimes representing black accomplishment and virtuosity; sometimes a symbol of segregation and creative limitations. It’s a dichotomy that extends from the word to the music as…
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Local children featured in ‘listening to the earth’ performance
Try this recipe for a special performance event: Take the leadership of Tandy Beal, a theater arts instructor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Add 40 UC Santa Cruz students. Mix well with 200 young local students, their teachers, and community members. Blend in weeks of schools visits, teaching, and practice. The result? Listening…
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Author explores ‘bridge of migrations’ between Japan and Brazil
Japan and Brazil: It’s hard to image two countries further apart, or two cultures more disparate. But after almost a century of economic and social ties, Japan and Brazil have built a “dynamic bridge of migrations,” says author Karen Tei Yamashita. Her book Circle K Cycles (Coffee House Press, 2001) explores these connections through the…