Show Participants

Amiri Baraka was born Leroi Jones in 1934. He first gained national recognition in the 1950's as a poet of the "Beat Generation." He has also been prominent as social and political activist. Baraka has published under his African name since 1967 and his work includes poetry, award-winning plays, novels and collections of critical essays.
Amiri Baraka is the author of, among other volumes: Black Music
Blues People: Negro Music in White America

Don Byron is a renowned Clarinetist who trained at the New England Conservatory of Music. In his recordings and sessions from the mid-1980's, he has championed the klezmer, the work of Mickey Katz and John Kirby, and the music of early swing pioneers.
Don Byron's CD's include:
Don Byron plays the music of Mickey Katz
Bug Music
Music for Six Musicians

Jeffrey Melnick is assistant Professor of American Studies at Babson College. He is co-editing two up-coming works Race and the Modern Artist and American Popular Music: A Twentieth-Century Reader.
Jeffrey Melnick is the author of:
A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and
American Popular Song

Mark D. Naison is the Director of the Urban Studies Program and Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University . He is working on a book of essays entitled Communism, Race and the Forging of American Identity and a memoir entitled Whiteboy: Reflections on a life between Racial boundaries.
Mark D. Naison is the author of:
Communists in Harlem during the Depression

Hankus Netsky B.M. with honors, M.M. with honors (NEC); studies at Carnegie Mellon University; jazz studies with Jaki Byard and George Russell; Third Stream studies with Ran Blake; performance throughout U.S. and Europe; founder and director, internationally acclaimed Klezmer Conservatory Band.