BRISTOL, VA - The Bristol Public Library partnered with Virginia Intermont College and BCMA and has been awarded a $2,500 grant to host a series featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions of 20th-century American popular music.
The Bristol Public Library will host the "America's Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway" series to enlighten audiences about uniquely American musical genres including blues and gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock n' roll, mambo, and hip hop. The BPL is one of fifty sites nationwide selected to host this program series. "America's Music" is a project by the Tribeca Film Institute in collaboration with the American Library Association, Tribeca Flashpoint, and the Society for American Music. "America's Music" has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
"We are thrilled to participate in this exciting program that will help introduce different types of music, show how modern music has been influenced by older styles, and bridge gaps among generations" said Jud Barry, executive director of the Bristol Public Library.
"America's Music," designed for a general audience, will introduce genres of 20th-century American popular music that are deeply connected to the history, culture, and geography of the United States. Older and younger Americans alike will have the chance to recognize how the cultural landscape that they take for granted today has been influenced by the development of the popular musical forms discussed in this series.
The onset of the 20th century brought pervasive changes to American society. During the early part of the century, these social changes combined with new technologies to create a mass market for popular music that evolved over the next 100 years. The "America's Music" series is not meant to offer an all-inclusive treatment of 20th-century American popular music. Instead, each screening and discussion session will examine an important American musical genre in the context of key social and historical developments, with events in American music history acting as a catalyst for that examination.
The schedule for this film series will be announced later when dates have been confirmed.
For more information on this program or other library events, please visit www.bristol-library.org or call (276) 821-6148.
