Chestertown, MD, January 31, 2002 — In celebration of Black History Month, writer, storyteller and blues singer Arthur Flowers will present an evening of performance literature and music, Thursday, February 14, 2002, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Washington College's Norman James Theatre, William Smith Hall. The concert is free and the public is invited to attend.
Flowers is the author of two novels, De Mojo Blues and Another Good Loving Blues, a children's book Cleveland Lee's Beale Street Band, and the forthcoming nonfiction book, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman. He writes and performs as a "literary hoodoo man" to bridge the gap between Western literary culture and African oral traditions. He is the co-founder of the New Renaissance Writer's Guild and teaches creative writing at Syracuse University.
Flowers considers himself a contemporary griot, referring to the storytellers of ancient African societies who passed on the history of their people to future generations through the oral tradition. Using "performance literature" as the medium, Flowers accompanies his presentations with African instruments and rhythms.
Although a native of Memphis, Flowers did not discover blues music and culture until he moved to New York to become a writer after serving in Vietnam. While researching the blues and the Hoodoo religious tradition, he became more deeply dedicated to uncovering the African traditions that have influenced American culture and to making the African vernacular a greater power and living part of our nation's literary tradition and language forms.
The performance is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the Washington College Chapter of Cleopatra's Daughters and the Office of Campus Events.
For more information on these or other events at Washington College, call the Campus Events Office at 410-778-7888.
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