Details
Thu, Sep 27, 2018
7:30pm
Contact
Box Office
888-616-0274
boxoffice@irishartscenter.org
Phone hours:
10am-6pm, Monday-Friday
In person:
Opens 60 minutes before the performance on show days
Irish Arts Center
553 West 51st Street
New York, NY 10019
Overview
Described as the “father of American music,” Stephen Foster penned an oeuvre that includes “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Hard Times Come Again No More,” songs that helped weave the fabric of this country’s musical heritage.
But for all of his artistic impact, Foster’s legacy is complex: he also wrote for minstrel shows, which were founded on the comic enactments of racial stereotypes. In April of this year, the city of Pittsburgh removed a public statue of Stephen Foster with an African American man playing banjo at his feet.
For many years, ethnomusicologist Mick Moloney has explored connections between Foster’s songwriting, traditional Irish music, and black banjo music, and together with Irish Arts Center has sought an appropriate platform to present this history.
As part of this exploration, we will bring together a number of cultural practitioners impacted by Foster for a conversation about his legacy. How do we appreciate Foster’s musical influence while addressing its controversial origin?
Join Mick Moloney, musician Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, artist and curator Leni Sloan, author and historian Emily Bingham, music journalist and Stephen Foster biographer Ken Emerson, and IAC director of programming and education Rachael Gilkey for a conversation that asks where we go from here.
