Being Thelonious: Perspectives on Thelonious Monk at 100

The Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham School of Media are hosting a free half-day symposium entitled Being Thelonious: Perspectives on Thelonious Monk at 100on Thursday 15 June 2017.

The keynote address will be given by Professor Robin D. G. Kelley, Department of History, UCLA, whose Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original(Free Press 2009) is the first full-length, complete biography of the pianist.

Professor Kelley’s work explores the history of social movements in the U.S., the African Diaspora, and Africa; black intellectuals; music; visual culture; contemporary urban studies; historiography and historical theory; poverty studies and ethnography; colonialism/imperialism; organized labor; constructions of race; Surrealism, Marxism, nationalism, among other things, and his publications include Race Rebels(Free Press, 1996), Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America(Beacon, 1998), and Freedom Dreams (Beacon, 2003).

There will also be presentations from New York guitarist and Monk expert Steve Cardenas, Hans Koller, Pedro Cravinho, and Sid Peacock.

You can register here.