Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Awardee, Alex Smith

Among this year's Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program awardees is Alex Smith, apprentice to master marimba builder Matt Kazmierski. Alex is a master's candidate at Michigan State University, studying percussion performance and musicology with a focus on sustainable instruments and their builders.

MSU Today generated a piece about Alex last winter, highlighting the film he produced to chronicle his attempt to create a completely sustainable marimba.

You can view his film here: http://vimeo.com/80535177#at=0

Image courtesy of Alex Smith

MSU Today Student View: Alex Smith
Dec. 4, 2013 
Alex Smith, a master’s candidate in performance and musicology at MSU, has taken on a project that pushes the boundaries between musical eloquence, attainable and sustainable materials and the artistry required to construct a complex and precise instrument like the marimba. 

As a percussionist, Smith understands all too well what is required to play the marimba skillfully. But as a traveler abroad, he sees the challenges of conserving the diminishing and highly desirable wood materials needed to manufacture particular instruments. 

Smith knew that rare woods, like rosewood and padouk, were often used for the production of marimba bars. He also learned that international labor was often involved in constructing percussion instruments. 

After taking those two things into consideration, he wanted to discover what it might take to make a quality instrument closer to home. Thanks to funding from MSU and the help of local luthier and marimba craftsman Matt Kazmierski, Smith set out to make a sustainable, affordable marimba from resources obtained here in Michigan. 

Before coming to the MSU College of Music, Smith received his undergraduate degree from East Carolina University. He is a percussion performance and musicology/ethnomusicology master’s student who is also interested in the music of the world, having lived in both Brazil and Ghana. Smith’s creative endeavors combine his local and abroad experiences with his compositional identity and passion for teaching and researching.

Source

An Amazing New National Resource: The Civil Rights History Project Web Site

The Civil Rights Project Homepage

After almost five years of work, an amazing new educational resource has just been made available to the public. It is truly a gift to all of us, and especially to educators. On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009. The law directed the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture to "conduct a survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights Movement to obtain justice, freedom and equality for African Americans and to record new interviews with people who participated in the struggle, over a five year period beginning in 2010."

The activists interviewed for this project belong to a wide range of occupations, including lawyers, judges, doctors, farmers, journalists, professors, and musicians. Their recollections are just as diverse, covering topics such as the influence of the labor movement, nonviolence and self-defense, religious faith, music, and the experiences of young activists.

Many of the interviewees were active in national organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Other interviewees were key members of specialized and local groups including the Medical Committee for Human Rights, the Deacons for Defense and Justice, the Cambridge (Maryland) Nonviolent Action Committee, and the Newark Community Union Project. Several interviews include men and women participated in the struggle for civil rights in areas not always recognized as hot beds of turmoil during the Civil Right Movement, providing a more complete picture of the cultural climate throughout the country at this time.

This site also guides researchers to collections in several Library of Congress divisions that specifically focus on the Civil Rights Movement as well as the broader topic of African American history and culture. The Civil Rights History Project Collection contains 401 items consisting of video files, videocassettes, digital photographs and interview transcripts, with several more such items to be added once the interviews conclude in 2015.

Take a moment and visit this site. It is a powerful tool for our understanding of the history and promise of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement during the year when we are commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision and the 50th anniversary year of the U.S. Civil Rights legislation. 

Go to: http://loc.gov/collection/civil-rights-history-project/about-this-collection/

Written by Kurt Dewhurst