Contact: Patrice Bell-Mercadel (504) 520-5452 or Richard Tucker (504) 520-5425

Xavier to Host Resistance and Redemption in Black : Past and Present

New Orleans LA - Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) will host a special program, Resistance and Redemption in Black New Orleans: Past and Present Sunday, Oct. 22, at 2:00 p.m. in the Xavier University Center’s McCaffrey Ballroom, 3rd floor. This event is hosted and sponsored by XULA’s own Dr. Michael White, Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities’ with Xavier University in Louisiana as part of the Culture of New Orleans Series.

The program, which will include a musical presentation by Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band, is free and open to the public.

This presentation will examine various forms of black resistance to racism and oppression throughout New Orleans’ 300 year history – from slave uprisings and escape, Reconstruction era turmoil, early 20th century struggles and Civil Rights era protests into today’s battles over issues like police brutality and Confederate monument removal.

The program will feature a special panel of distinguished speakers discussing social, legal and physical resistance throughout the city’s existence. Included will be a discussion of black New Orleanians’ unique forms of cultural resistance through social club parades, jazz, and Mardi Gras Indian traditions.

Panelists will include longtime Civil Rights activist Rev. Samson “Skip” Alexander; Plessey vs. Ferguson case descendants, Phoebe Ferguson and Keith Plessey; author and son of Civil Rights Attorney, A. P. Tureaud, Jr.; community activist and founder of Take ‘em Down NOLA, Malcolm Suber; and Black Panther and historian Malik Rahim.

About Michael White

Dr. Michael White is a leading figure in traditional New Orleans jazz and one of only a few to creatively carry on the rich clarinet sound and style of that city. He is a relative of several first generation jazz musicians, including bassist Papa John Joseph, clarinetist Willie Joseph and reedman Earl Fouche. He studied clarinet with noted band director Edwin Hampton and was a member of the esteemed St. Augustine High School Marching 100 and Symphonic Band. In line with New Orleans tradition, White began his jazz career by playing for several years in social club parades and jazz funerals with Doc Paulin’s Brass Band.

As a young musician Dr. White had the opportunity to learn from and perform for many years with over three dozen active musicians born between the late 1890s and 1910, such as Kid Thomas Valentine, , Louis Nelson, Danny Barker, , , Colar, , Emmanuel Sayles, etc.

Today White has an active career as one of the most respected and visible of New Orleans musicians. He has performed in over two dozen foreign countries and has played on over 60 recordings. He has twelve recordings under his own name, including critically acclaimed Basin Street Records releases, which contain several of his original compositions: A Song for George Lewis (2000), Jazz from the Soul of New Orleans (2002), Dancing in the Sky (2004), Blue Crescent (2008) and Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Pt 1 (2011) and Pt 2 (2012).

During his career White has had many appearances at major festivals and concert venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, the Kennedy Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Montreaux Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival, etc. He has served as musical director for several Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts, and has a long association of performing and recording with fellow New Orleanian, Wynton Marsalis. In 2006 Dr. White produced Been in the Storm Too Long, a festival of New Orleans music within the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington, DC. He and his Liberty Brass Band performed for the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

White received his PhD. in Spanish from Tulane University. He taught Spanish for many years at Xavier University, where he currently teaches African American Music and holds the Rosa and Charles Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities. White has also distinguished himself as a jazz historian, writer, producer, and composer, and frequently serves as a consultant and interviewee on international radio, television and documentary films. Since 1995 he has been the main consultant for traditional jazz for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He has been highly praised for his unique lectures and presentations. Dr. White has been profiled in several books, essays and major publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Readers’ Digest, the Tribune and USA Today.

Among the numerous awards and honors White has received are the French Chevalier of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Humanities Fellowship Award (the nation’s highest award in the traditional and folk arts). In 2010 he was named Louisiana Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment For the Humanities and also won the Offbeat Magazine Best of the Beat Award as Clarinetist of the Year and Gambit Magazine’s Big Easy Award as Traditional Jazz Artist of the Year. He was also selected several times by both the Downbeat Magazine’s Critics and Readers polls as being among the top jazz clarinetists. In 2015 he received the Jazz Hero Award from the Jazz Journalists Association of America. He repeated Offbeat Award in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Dr. White has rebounded from the devastating loss of his home, extensive musical collection and archive in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina to begin a new and more in-depth period of musical growth and production. White’s unique clarinet sound had been included on recent recordings by several legends of popular music, including Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Paul Simon and Marianne Faithful.

Dr. White has appeared on national television numerous time, including: The Allstate Sugar Bowl National Anthem, HBOs television series Treme, National Geographic Channel’s America’s Lost Treasures, International Jazz Week Celebration – various news channels and CNN New Year’s Eve Celebration – live from Jackson Square.

In 2014 he was awarded the Tulane University President’s Medal at commencement. In 2015 White produced the CD recording New Orleans Brass Bands: Through the Streets of the City for the Smithsonian Institution, for which he performed with his Liberty Brass Band, composed an original funeral march and wrote the accompanying liner notes and booklet. In 2016 won the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Paul Williams/Deems Taylor Award for the Smithsonian CD liner notes.

In 2015, 2016 and 2017 Dr. White has served as guest coach for and performed with student ensembles in the jazz program of Juilliard Music School for concerts featuring the classic early New Orleans jazz music of , Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton.

Since 2002 Dr. White has produced the Culture of New Orleans Series at Xavier University, a highly successful program of over two dozen lectures, concerts and film presentations featuring the authentic traditions and people of New Orleans. Subjects of the CONO Series have included the Mardi Gras Indians, the African Roots of New Orleans Music, Congo Square, Louis Armstrong, a Mahalia Jackson Centennial Celebration, Sidney Bechet, the Creole Presence in New Orleans Jazz, Black Mardi Gras Traditions and the Jazz Funeral and Second Line Traditions.

About Xavier University of Louisiana

XULA students Leave Ready to serve, care, and lead their communities. For more information about Xavier University of Louisiana visit us online at www.xula.edu or follow us on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter @XULA1925. Take a moment to learn more about how Xavier is preparing students for the future at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD4mb-jYZC8.

Once again, Xavier University of Louisiana received national accolades as one of the best universities in the country. Most notably, XULA is ranked as the best value among southern regional colleges and universities in the 2018 edition of “Best Colleges” by the U.S. News Media Group. Xavier also ranked No.1 in its grouping, heading the list of only 15 schools that qualified for the Southern Region category listed under “Great Schools, Great Prices.” To book interviews about our recent accomplishments and or to speak with our experts in the field of pharmacy, premed, public health, science, technology, math, business, English, communications and the arts, contact Patrice Bell Mercadel, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at 504-520-5452 or via email at [email protected].

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