February 23, 2012

Performance will celebrate Black History Month

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- She brings part lecture, part performance, and a total experience -- Jodi Lynn Merriday is a guest of Southern Illinois University Carbondale during Black History Month to bring musical life and historical context, and thereby, greater appreciation, of three black American female vocalists: Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Abby Lincoln.

Merriday will present a concert and lecture at the Carbondale Civic Center beginning at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28.  There is no charge for this informative and entertaining event.

Merriday describes herself as a “jazz/neo-soul vocalist, performance poet, and academician/music educator.” 

As a performer, she blends blues and jazz with “Atlanta crunk.”  As a scholar, she continues to build on the topic of her dissertation, “Hip Hop HerStory: Women in Hip Hop Cultural Production and Music from Margins to Equity.”  She has teaching experience at Spelman College, Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, the Art Institute of Philadelphia and the Community College of Philadelphia.

A CD signing will immediately follow the performance.

The SIU Carbondale Black History Month Committee, School of Music, College of Mass Communication and Media Arts’ School of Journalism and Department of Radio and Television, and the Registered Student Organization National Association of Black Journalists sponsor Merriday’s visit.