When classically trained jazz vocalist Candice Hoyes sings, she loses herself in the music, giving herself over to the communal experience of connecting with fellow musicians and the audience through storytelling.

“I’m not listening to myself. What you hear in my voice is what I hear in them playing. I’m thinking about what I’m saying,” says Hoyes, a soprano who recently released her debut album, “On a Turquoise Cloud.”

This Thursday, Jan. 26, Hoyes will join Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African American Studies for a conversation about Ellington’s legacy and its relevance to the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Revisiting Duke Ellington in the Era of Black Lives Matter” will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Room 240, of the John Hope Franklin Center (2204 Erwin Road). It is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the clinic parking lot across the street.

The independent U.S. release, “On a Turquoise Cloud,” interprets the rare songs of Duke Ellington, which she unearthed through extended research in the Smithsonian’s National Archives. Many of the songs have not been recorded since the originals of the 1920s and 1930s.

Hoyes has called upon many influences to create her debut album. She studied sociology at Harvard before earning fellowships at both the Boston Conservatory and the Westminster Conservatory of Music. She later toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center, performing alongside mentor Wynton Marsalis.

Why Duke Ellington?

“Because I have something highly personal that I can say through his compositions. I can embody it — heart, mind and voice. His compositions are so rich and fertile. It has a luxury to it, very shimmering and lush. I would also say it’s challenging – for me as a performer, but also for the audience,” Hoyes says.

The songs Hoyes found in the archive, such as ‘Creole Love Song,’ had been specifically written for a black woman’s voice. Ellington first recorded them with vocalist Adelaide Hall and then again later, for Kay Davis. Hoyes thought the classical style of singing was fascinating, but could not find the sheet music for the recordings because the songs had been out of circulation for so long and no one was singing them.

“When I found these songs, it was the first time I felt seen and acknowledged this fully in a piece of art. They embraced me,” Hoyes says. “I wanted the songs to live together because I think they make a statement. They are both classical and soulful and they are not contained by any one genre.”

Hoyes likes connecting with young people to show them that an artist can draw from all of his or her influences and they should value their individuality.

“I really am an educator and I’m enthusiastic about young people asserting their individual perspective,” Hoyes says. “It’s important to create with a sense of responsibility and with great care, but also without limiting yourself before you can stretch and share with the world.”

On the evening of Sept. 29, author, journalist and professor Marc Lamont Hill spoke to a standing room only crowd in Duke University’s Full Frame Theater on the American Tobacco campus.

Hill, a Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College, was in conversation with African and African American Studies professor Mark Anthony Neal, the director of the Center for Arts Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship. Their conversation hinged on Hill’s latest book, “Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond.”

Hill who is currently the host of BET News and VH1 Live as well as a political contributor to CNN, talked about being among the first reporters to arrive in Ferguson, Mo., following the police killing of teen Michael Brown in 2014.

He talked about the “ordinariness of state violence” against people who are perceived as politically vulnerable and disposable, such as those in New Orleans following Katrina and those in Flint where drinking water was contaminated.

“In Flint we are witnessing this young century’s most profound illustration of civic evil, an entire city collectively punished with lead poisoned water for the crime of being poor, black and politically disempowered,” Hill said, reading a passage from his book.

“These conditions reflect the prevailing belief that the vulnerable are unworthy of investment, protection and the most fundamental provisions of the social contract. As a result, they can be erased, abandoned and even left to die,” said Hill. “That is state violence.”

“It doesn’t happen in Grosse Pointe, Michigan,” Hill said.

The conversation continued with Hill offering comment on sports and politics.

On Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against the Star-Spangled Banner, Hill said at least other athletes are supportive. “Muhammad Ali had to stand alone,” he said.

“I am finding (Trump’s) campaign is dangerous, patriarchal and homophobic and often uninformed by things like data,” said Hill, noting the increasing racism and xenophobia in the U.S. “I think there is a nostalgia for moments that never were what we think they were.”

He made parallels between the concerns of the Black Lives Matter social movement in the U.S. with the plight of oppressed people such as Palestinians. A cultural anthropologist by training, Hill is currently making monthly trips to Israel where he is researching a book on Afro-Palestinians.

Hill also discussed the “lonely and solitary” life of being a public intellectual.

“I have to live a life of discipline. I read every day. I write every day,” Hill said. “That’s a lesson for students. To be productive as a scholar you have to write every.”

Hill, who has appeared on CNN, FOX News, VH1 and BET, said that although he’s interested in engaging with academic work, but also interested in reaching new audiences and stretching the idea of “academic rigor.”

“I enjoy doing other things. There’s a weird thing in the academy where you can only be good at one thing,” said Hill who is a cultural anthropologist by training. “There’s a self-imposed marginality of the intellectual when you challenge masculinity and do risky intellectual projects.”

Although he uses popular television as a platform, he seizes the opportunity to put forth academic ideas about state violence and patriarchy.

“I’m not trying to smuggle everything in under the academic canopy,” he said.

Professor Kerry L. Haynie was elected to a two year term as Co-President of the American Political Science Association’s  Section on Race and Ethnic Politics, at the association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, Aug. 31-Sept. 4, 2016.  The purpose of the Section is to foster communication among scholars, recognize leadership in the field, facilitate research and publication opportunities, encourage undergraduate and student interest, and create a permanent forum for developing and refining appropriate theoretical models in the study of race and ethnicity. Founded in 1995, the Section Race and Ethnic Politics has quickly become one of the largest subfields in the American Political Science Association (APSA). The section now represents more than 500 political science professors, graduate students, authors, and editors. Professor Jane Junn of the University of Southern California will be the Section’s other Co-President. In 2008, Haynie and Junn co-edited, New Race Politics: Understanding Minority and Immigrant Politics (Cambridge University Press).

Professor Kerry Haynie appears on a expert panel convened by WRAL’s “On The Record” with host Laura Leslie to discuss the Republican National Convention, Trump’s speech and the state of the party.

“[His speech] didn’t accomplish what I think Mr. Trump needs to accomplish the most, and that is to broaden the base. Moving to the general election, he has to broaden that appeal.  I don’t think he did that,” Haynie said during the discussion. “It was an appeal to the conservative wing of the base. The ‘law and order’ references over and over again helped him with that base and the delegates in the convention. I’m not sure how well it will help him moving forward in the general election.”

The party, Haynie said, has ignored the demographic growth among young people and ethnic minorities.

“I thought the tone and demeanor was odd. The yelling was high pitched and high toned. We already knew that Donald Trump. He had an opportunity, I think a missed opportunity, to introduce another side to himself and I don’t think he did that,” Haynie said.

He added: “It was a very white audience. The [Republican] autopsy plan called for reaching out to blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans. You didn’t see much of that in that audience. It was the whitest Republican convention in recent memory.”

Watch here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/video/15871976/ (starts at 2:04)

From Michigan State University, College of Arts and Letters:

Yomaira Figueroa, assistant professor in the MSU Department of English and African American and African Studies, has been selected as a 2015-2017 Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement (SITPA) Fellow, and inaugural SITPA Fellows cohort member.

SITPA is a mentoring and professional socialization initiative at Duke University designed for early-career faculty to facilitate successful transition from junior faculty status to tenured associate professor. Its underlying objective is to address the persistent underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities on the faculties of U.S. colleges and universities.

The two-year SITPA fellowship provides information, guidance, and strategies on how to be successful in the tenure quest. Many view increasing tenure success rates as the next frontier in efforts to diversify the academy. A central feature of SITPA is matching fellows with a senior faculty mentor in their discipline, but from a college or university other than their own.

Says Figueroa, “Being chosen for the SITPA Fellowship means that I have an exciting opportunity to work alongside a diverse community of junior and senior scholars committed to countering the underrepresentation of tenured faculty of color in the U.S. As a fellow, I will have access to two years of one-on-one mentorship and help developing strategies toward completing several critical research projects with the goal of successfully earning tenure at MSU.”

Dr. Figueroa works on 20th century U.S. Latin Caribbean, Afro-Latinx and Afro-Hispanic literature and culture. Her current book project, “Decolonial Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Latinx & Afro-Hispanic Literature,” focuses on diasporic and exilic Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, and Equatoguinean texts in contact.

Figueroa earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and her B.A. in English, Latino & Hispanic Caribbean Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University.

Announcement from the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences:

Keisha N. Blain, assistant professor in the Department of History, has been selected as a 2016-2018 Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement (SITPA) Fellow at Duke University.

SITPA is a mentoring and professional socialization initiative at Duke designed for early-career faculty to facilitate successful transition from junior faculty status to tenured associate professor. The two-year SITPA fellowship provides information, guidance, and strategies on how to be successful in the tenure quest. In addition to providing research and teaching grants to fellows, a central feature of SITPA is matching fellows with a senior faculty mentor in their discipline, from a college or university other than their own.

Blain is an historian of 20th century United States. She joined the University of Iowa faculty this academic year, in the Department of History, part of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She specializes in 20th century U.S. history, African American history, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies, and is the co-editor of Charleston Syllabus: Readings of Race, Racism, and Racial Violence, released this year.

http://clas.uiowa.edu/news/history-professor-keisha-blain-selected-sitpa-fellow-duke-university

On July 3, Professor Mark Anthony Neal appeared in UNC-TV’s Black Issues Forum to discuss race, ethnicity and identity with Dr. Candis Watts Smith of UNC-Chapel Hill, and Samone Oates-Bullock, a public policy graduate student, also at UNC-Chapel-Hill. . The concept of race is a complex matter, and often it is difficult to have a real conversation about race and ethnicity without tensions rising and offenses being launched. Host Deborah Holt Noel leads a dialogue about the definition of race and more.

Watch here: http://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/2365794253