KANSAS CITY, KAN. ----- KCKCC is presenting its fifth episode of its NEH grant series, “America’s Music,” later this week.
The series, which started in February, looks at different genres of music and the people who influenced them. KCKCC was awarded a $2,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities last year to fund the series, “America’s Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway.” The college was the only applicant in Kansas to receive the grant funding.
This month’s episode is “The History of Rock ‘n Roll: Plugging In” and focuses on how Bob Dylan changed folk music by switching to an electric guitar. Jim Krajewski, academic coordinator for English at KCKCC, is the project scholar/artist, performing with his band The Slavs. Group members include Martha Hael, Bob Brostoski and Krajewski, and they play a variety of music genres including original pieces, country/western, swing, rock and roll, jazz and folk.
“I’m a life-long fan of Dylan’s music. His influence cannot be erased from my psyche and my sense of what an artist is and what an artist should be,” Krajewski said. “So, it’s an opportunity to share my experience and interest in Dylan with a larger audience. Ideally, those in attendance will also share their experience and interest which will heighten our awareness of how music and culture mingle to create who we are and what we do.”
The event is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 at the West Wyandotte Library, 1737 N. 82nd St. It is free, and open to the public. Light refreshments will also be served.
The “America’s Music” series began in February with blues and gospel. Subsequent episodes featured discussions of Broadway, swing and country/bluegrass music. The last episode will be Nov. 26 and feature mambo and hip-hop. Local partners that help to sponsor the series are KCKCC, West Wyandotte Library and EL Centro, Inc. National sponsors of the event are the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Library Association and Tribeca Flashpoint.
For more information about the “America’s Music” series, contact Cherilee Walker, dean of humanities and fine arts and KCKCC, at 913-288-7269 or by email at cwalker@kckcc.edu. For more information about the NEH, visit the website, www.neh.gov.
