Fisk University

Monday, May 13, 2019

It’s an unjust­ly nelect­ed reper­toire of music, like­ly obscured, at least in part, because of racism. Friday evening, one organ­ist will bring 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, will per­form a recital of music by black com­posers Friday, May 17 at 7 p.m. at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbus.

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

The concert’s pro­gram fea­tures 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.

 

Listen to record­ed organ per­for­mance by Dr. Anthony Williams.

 

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

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.”

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

 

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

 

 

 

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

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

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.

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Plan Your Visit to Fisk University Galleries

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.