News Release

Note: To download photos, see end of story.

DJ to present remix, re-interpretation 
of 1915 racist film, Sept. 23 at UNC

By ROSEMARY HOLLAND
Carolina Performing Arts Series

CHAPEL HILL — A seminal figure in the New York DJ-as-artist club scene, DJ Spooky is a philosopher, conceptual artist, writer and musician.

On Friday, (Sept. 23) at 8 p.m., he will present the program "Rebirth of a Nation" at Memorial Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His performance will be part of the 2005-2006 Carolina Performing Arts Series.

"Rebirth of a Nation" is DJ Spooky's compelling live remix of the technologically groundbreaking but explicitly racist 1915 film, "The Birth of a Nation." Based on "The Clansman," a play by a North Carolina Baptist minister, "The Birth of a Nation" was used for decades to recruit Ku Klux Klan members.

In combining video imagery, footage from the original film and live music, DJ Spooky says, "I hoped to create a counter-narrative, one where the story implodes on itself, one where new stories arise out of the ashes of that explosion."

A reviewer for the Chicago Tribune wrote of the artist, "[His] ambitious soundscapes [are] notable as much for their eclectic imagination as for their post-modern intellectualism."

Single ticket prices for the public range from $15 to $35; for Carolina students, tickets are $10 each. Students should call the Memorial Hall box office at (919) 843-3333 for purchasing information.

Series subscriptions also are available. To purchase tickets, call or visit the box office on Cameron Avenue, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to intermission on performance days.

For more information, e-mail performingarts@unc.edu or visit www.unc.edu/performingarts. 

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/memorial/dj_spooky.jpg
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/memorial/dj_spooky2.jpg

DJ Spooky Web site: www.djspooky.com
DJ Spooky contact: Stephen Cohen, 828-225-5658, steve@musicandart.net
Carolina Performing Arts Series contact: Jennifer Smith at (919) 966-3834, jwsmith@unc.edu
News Services contacts: Print, L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595