Tag: sfcevents

SFC Presents: Author Talk with Kristina Gaddy

The Southern Folklife Collection and UNC University Libraries are excited to announce this forthcoming Author Talk featuring Kristina R. Gaddy, Thursday, November 16th from 7-8 EST.  This is a hybrid event which will be hosted in Pleasants Family Assembly Room at Wilson Special Collections Library here on UNC’s campus.

This in-person event is free and open to the public, no RSVP required; if you would like to join us virtually, register at go.unc.edu/gaddy.

Gaddy’s most recent book Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History, of which you can read an excerpt here (“On the Rich, Hidden History of the Banjo”), was named one of 2022’s Most Memorable Music Books by No Depression.  Gaddy is also the author of Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of the Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis, and her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Atlas Obscura, among other publications.

We look forward to welcoming you to Wilson or online for this talk!

Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s: Dr. Cheryl Thurber and Rising Star Fife and Drum

Othar Turner blowing fife at picnic 1973. Photographed by Cheryl Thurber.

One week from today, Monday February 25.

Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s

Exhibition opening with lecture by Dr. Cheryl Thurber and performance by Rising Star Fife and Drum
5:30 p.m. Reception and exhibition viewing
6:00 p.m. Lecture
7:00 p.m. Performance
Scenes and sounds of African-American musical traditions from Mississippi will greet visitors to Wilson Library during the opening of a new photographic exhibition in the Pleasants Family Assembly Room.
“Cheryl Thurber Photographs: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s” will launch with a talk by the photographer and a performance by Rising Star Fife and Drum.
Thurber is an interdisciplinary scholar, cultural historian, folklorist and photographer whose images have been published in the New York Times and Rolling Stone, as well as in numerous music and folklore publications.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Thurber traveled through the South and California, documenting African-American communities, musicians and musical traditions, including in the small town of Gravel Springs, Mississippi. Thirty prints from Thurber’s time in Gravel Springs will be on view. They are part of the Cheryl Thurber Photographic Collection in the Southern Folklife Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library.
Following Thurber’s talk, Rising Star Fife and Drum will take the stage for a traditional performance of this iconic form of blues music.
Presented by the Southern Folklife Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library, the American Studies department and the Center for the Study of the American South.