Fisk University

Anthony Williams, DMA

It’s an unjust­ly nelect­ed reper­toire of music, like­ly obscured, at least in part, because of racism. Friday evening, May 17, 2019, one organ­ist brought some of this music to light in a con­cert ben­e­fit­ing a project to update the church build­ing of one of Columbus’ old­est African American con­gre­ga­tions.

Anthony Williams, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of music and uni­ver­si­ty organ­ist at Nashville’s Fisk University, per­formed a recital of music by black com­posers Friday, May 17 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbus.

Admission was free, though freewill offer­ings were tak­en to help defray the costs of updat­ing the acces­si­ble ramp lead­ing into the church’s his­toric East Long Street build­ing.

The concert’s pro­gram fea­tured music by African American com­posers John W. Work III, Ralph Simpson, Mark Fax and Florence Price, as well as selec­tions by the Afro-British com­pos­er Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Fela Sowande, a Nigerian-born com­pos­er who served on the fac­ul­ty of Kent State University.

Some of the works on Williams’ May 17 recital still exist only in man­u­script form. But thanks to Williams – who com­plet­ed his doc­tor­al dis­ser­ta­tion on the key­board music of John W. Work III and is cur­rent­ly edit­ing some of Work’s music – and oth­er musi­cians, more and more organ music by black com­posers has been com­ing to light in pub­lished edi­tions and pub­lic per­for­mances.

“In the past, a lot of these com­posers had dif­fi­cul­ties – because of their race – hav­ing pub­lish­ers pub­lish their music,” Williams said in a recent phone inter­view. “Many times, (pub­lish­ers) would ignore them and refuse to pub­lish.”

The cor­re­spon­dence of John W. Work III is a painful record of one African American composer’s efforts to bring his work before the pub­lic.

“Work was a very avid let­ter writer,” Williams said, “and I found a let­ter to a pub­lish­er where he was sub­mit­ting a man­u­script. And with the man­u­script, he also gave them mon­ey for return postage and asked them if they choose not to pub­lish the man­u­script, to please return it, and made a state­ment to the effect that he was used to rejec­tion in this man­ner.”

Read more and lis­ten to a record­ed inter­view with Dr. Anthony Williams about the music.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, Jr., to Deliver the 2019 Fisk University Commencement Address

Rev. Al Sharpton

Nashville, Tenn., April 12, 2019 – Civil rights activist Reverend Alfred C. Sharpton Jr., will deliv­er the 2019 keynote address dur­ing the 145^th com­mence­ment exer­cise for Fisk University. Graduation cer­e­monies will be held at Mt. Zion Baptist Church (7594 Old Hickory Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37189), on Monday, May 6, 2019, begin­ning at 10:00 a.m.

“It is an hon­or and priv­i­lege for the Fisk com­mu­ni­ty to have Rev. Al Sharpton deliv­er­ing remarks to our 2019 grad­u­at­ing class,” said President Kevin D. Rome, Sr., Ph.D. “He has lived an extra­or­di­nary life full of accom­plish­ments and made a sig­nif­i­cant impact on our com­mu­ni­ty. I know that his words will inspire our grad­u­ates to cre­ate pos­i­tive change in their com­mu­ni­ties after grad­u­at­ing Fisk.”

Read more.

Roland G. Parrish Center Ground Breaking at Fisk University, May 3, 2019

Read more.

“Fisk & Film” Fundraiser for the University, May 2, 2019

Dr. Jessie Carney Smith is Honoree of the Museum of the Bible

Jessie Smith PhD

Dr. Jessie Carney Smith, Dean of the Library and hold­er of the Camille Cosby Distinguished Chair in the Humanities at Fisk University, will be the hon­oree dur­ing an event at the Museum of the Bible cel­e­brat­ing Women’s History Month on March 21, 2019, at 6:30 p.m., at the muse­um. The  extreme­ly rare copy of the Slave Bible also is on loan to the Museum of the Bible, as an exhib­it, by Fisk University.

Dr. Smith is the author of numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing Black Firsts, 3rd Edition, 2013, Detroit: Visible Ink Press; Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture. 4 vols, 2011, Santa Barbara: Greenwood/ABC-CLIO; Civil Rights Facts and Firsts, 2009, with Linda Wynn, Detroit: Visible Ink Press; Notable Black American Men, Book II, 2006, Book I, 1999, Detroit: Gale Research; Notable Black American Women, 2003, Detroit: Gale Research.

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In Review: The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, March 2, 2019

The Fisk Jubilee Singers

If you’re not allowed to hope for free­dom, call it Heaven and stick it in a song. That was the strat­e­gy that emerged on March 2 at Zankel Hall, when the Fisk Jubilee Singers pre­sent­ed a con­cert of spir­i­tu­als under the aegis of the Harry T Burleigh Society as the inau­gur­al event of their 2019 con­fer­ence. Very few of the select­ed songs explic­it­ly men­tioned the myr­i­ad hor­rors of chat­tel slav­ery or looked for­ward to its end with yearn­ing, but even in the most osten­si­bly joy­ous num­bers, the sub­text was unmiss­able.

Read More.

Plan Your Visit to Fisk University Galleries

Van Vechten Gallery

Fisk University Galleries include the Carl Van Vechten Gallery, the Aaron Douglas Gallery and the Aaron Douglas Murals. All three are with­in a short walk of each oth­er. When you arrive at the Carl Van Vechten Gallery, one of the Gallery Ambassadors will be hap­py to direct you to these and oth­er sites on cam­pus.

Please note that the gal­leries close for Fisk University hol­i­days (click here for the aca­d­e­m­ic cal­en­dar).

Tours & Class Visits: If you would like to sched­ule a free tour of the exhi­bi­tions with one of the Gallery Ambassadors or a class vis­it with a staff mem­ber, please call 615–329-8720 or email galleries@fisk.edu. If you are inter­est­ed in a tour of Fisk University’s cam­pus, please con­tact Kara Duke, Campus Visit Coordinator, in the Office of Recruitment and Admission, at 615–329-8835, or email kduke@fisk.edu. Read more.