NEWS

UNC Stone Center to examine cultural ties among African, Latin, African-American music

By BRANDI WILLIAMS

Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center

CHAPEL HILL -- Salsa and Hip-hop. Merengue and bee-bop. What do they have in common?

Cultural connections among these music genres and others will be explored Oct. 3-4 in a seminar offered by the Sonja Haynes Stone Black Cultural Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Encounter/Encuentro: Meetings in African, Latin and African-American Music," free and open to the public, will be designed to facilitate racial understanding by looking at the common origins and development of music from Africa and Latin and North America.

Seminar meetings, both in Room 1505 of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union, will be at noon Oct. 3 and 7 p.m. Oct. 4. The room, also called the multipurpose room, is in the new union expansion.

"Cha Cha With a Backbeat: Songs and Stories of Latin Boogaloo," the Oct. 3 program, will be presented by Juan Flores, a professor of black and Puerto Rican studies at Hunter College in New York City and author of "From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identities."

Speaking with Flores will be Nathan McClintock, a deejay at UNC's student radio station, WXYC, who will make short presentation about the relationship between West African and Cuban music.

"Encounter/Encuentro: Meetings in African, Latin and African-American Music," the Oct. 4 program, will be a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Maria DeGuzman, assistant professor of English at UNC. The panelists will be:

Lisa Brock, associate professor of African history and Diaspora studies at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, providing historical context for the discussion; and

Anthony Macias, assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside, presenting "From Pachuco Boogie to Latin Jazz: Chicanos, Latinos and African-Americans in Los Angeles";

"Encounter" was first presented July 26 at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. The Stone Center co-sponsored that presentation.

At UNC, the seminar will be presented by the Stone Center's Cross-Cultural Communications Institute, a program dedicated to improving race relations and racial understanding on campus and throughout the community.

The institute provides workshops, courses and practical experiences for participants that focus on critical examination of race relations as a dynamic process, evolving with the changing demographics of communities. The institute seeks to help participants communicate more effectively with members cultural and social groups other than their own.

For more information, call (919) 962-9001 or visit www.unc.edu/depts/bcc.

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Stone Center Contact: Brandi N. Williams (919) 962-7265

News Services Contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589