Monday, November 5, 2007

Thursday, November 8

African Avant-gardes and the Legacy of John Coltrane in Accra
Colloquium/Presentation by Dr. Steven Feld
4-5h30pm FREE
Fine Arts Recital Hall


The presentation will be built around a screening of Hallelujah!, Steven Feld’s documentary that presents the story of a postcolonial and postmodern African version of G. F. Handel’s Hallelujah chorus, as staged and performed by Ghanaba, the legendary Ghanaian drummer who introduced the talking drum to American jazz musicians in the 1950s, together with the Winneba Youth Choir, a leading choir in Africa. Their unique staging of the Hallelujah chorus mixes elements of African, Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic ritual together with formal European concert performance, Afro-Jazz, and Ghanaian song and dance ceremony. The film is in two parts, the first a document of the performance, the second a conversation with Ghanaba about the political, spiritual, and musical aspects of his approach to Handel.

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UNRULY MUSIC: Electro-Acoustic Music Center 25th Anniversary concert
7h30-9h30 FREE
Fine Arts Lecture Hall


Guest artist Steven Feld presents a collaborative work made with artist Virginia Ryan which documents the Atlantic Ocean where it meets the coast of Ghana. The work features video and 5.1 channel sound, and Feld describes it as "environmental sound art meets visual art," incorporating the sound of the ocean as well as music composed and performed by Feld together with two Ghanaian musicians.
"African avant-gardes and the legacy of John Coltrane in Accra, told through two musicians, one who has invented instruments (afrifones, African winds with sax mouthpieces) to play music inspired by Coltrane, the other who has merged jazz cymbals with African hand and stick drums in order to explore an African conversation with Elvin Jones's drumming. This turns all the sterotypes ---about Africans being trapped in either 'traditional music' or pop' to mush!"

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UWM Union Theater
Thursday – Sunday, November 8-11
Turkish Film Series

The best of recent Turkish cinema, from the poetic to the comedic, these films investigate the diverse lives of Turkish people at home and abroad, negotiating both tradition and modernity. All screenings are FREE and open to the public. Unless otherwise noted films are in Turkish with English subtitles. Sponsored by the Turkish American Association of Milwaukee, The UWM Film Department and the UWM Union Theatre.

The Turkish Film Series has been made possible by a generous grant from the Turkish Cultural Foundation.

7pm
Distant
(Nuri Bilge Ceylan , Turkey , 110 min., 35mm, 2002)

Winner – Grand Prix – 2003 Cannes Film Festival

Mahmut, a successful commercial photographer struggles to come to terms with the growing gap between his artistic ideals and his professional obligations. His tedious workload, and the lingering loss of his ex-wife, leaves him clinging to the melancholic and obsessive routines of his solitary life. Unexpectedly, his distant relative Yusuf arrives in Istanbul and imposes upon Mahmut. The two struggle to connect in this austere story permeated by heartwarming, often comic moments.