Osher Online - Jazz As Social Protest

Description

This program will not be recorded.

Jazz is a storied and complicated genre within the landscape of American popular music. Over six weeks, we'll evaluate various artists, subgenres, and songs through the lens of social activism and protest. During the first week, we'll examine the core components necessary to make a genre or song, "protest music." Once we have established our criteria, we'll take a deep dive into all sorts of jazz subgenres to find examples of social protest through swing. Our course will cover various artists but will focus primarily on the output of some of jazz's more socially active personalities, such as Charles Mingus, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday.

The National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes (Osher NRC) is offering this presentation in collaboration with Northwestern University School of Professional Studies.

Photo of Billie Holiday by Photo by Mel Levine, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. The image was cropped to fit the media.

About the Osher Online Program

Experience shared online presentations with OLLI members from coast to coast! As part of the Osher Online program, OLLI at MSU members will enjoy national speakers and interact with fellow OLLI members across the nation.

Scholarships

Apply for a needs-based scholarship to take this offering.

Meet the Instructor