paris/algiers 1969: declarations of freedom by the black american avant-garde

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At the close of the 1960s leading black American musicians associated with the “free jazz” scenes of New York and Chicago left for Paris. Weary of a poisoned U.S. political climate and eager to work, they would spend months or even years in the French capital seeking new opportunities to perform and record, often alongside French or other European jazz musicians. Some, like Archie Shepp and Dave Burrell, would participate in the epochal Pan-African Festival of July 1969. In scope and in impact, this migration of the American avant-garde –with the Art Ensemble of Chicago leading the way– mirrored that of other black American intellectuals from Richard Wright to James Baldwin who in post-war France saw a fertile ground for creation in proximity to the African continent.

To expand the historical record of trans-Atlantic cultural exchange at the close of the Sixties, and to assess the particular impact of the Pan-African Festival of July 1969, the Centre Louis Marin at Johns Hopkins is proud to host a two-day 50th anniversary symposium on its Homewood Campus in Baltimore. The event, to be held Friday, Nov. 15 and Saturday, November 16, 2019, brings together musicologists, cultural historians, critics and features such distinguished guests as pianist Dave Burrell, trumpeter Jacques Coursil, saxophonist David Murray, and artist/activist Elaine Mokhtefi, author of _Algiers: Third-World Capital_.

a free symposium open to the public

9:30 – 12:30 and 1:30 – 5 both days

fri nov 15 a.m. levering glass pavilion / p.m. mudd 26

sat. nov. 16 all day remsen hall 101

johns hopkins university homewood campus

3400 n. charles st. baltimore md