The Bellarmine University Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics will sponsor, “Freedom Sings™,” a live multimedia performance celebrating freedom of expression in America, at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 19. “Freedom Sings” will be presented in Frazier Hall, and it is free and open to the public.
Using musical performance, film, photographs and narration, the critically acclaimed 90-minute program tells the story of three centuries of banned or censored music in the USA, and invites the audience to take a fresh look at the First Amendment and the impact of freedom of speech.
"Freedom Sings” features an all-star cast of musicians including; Grammy Award winners Ashley Cleveland, Don Henry ("Where've You Been," recorded by Kathy Mattea), and Craig Krampf (mega-hit drummer and producer) along with Bill Lloyd, of the popular duo Foster and Lloyd and acclaimed singer Jonell Mosser, whose voice is heard in recordings and movies ranging from "Hope Floats" to "Boys on the Side." Completing the band is keyboardist Jen Gunderman of the Jayhawks, Dave Coleman, singer, songwriter and front-man of the popular group The Coalmen and Jacqueline Patterson, member of the historic Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University.
Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, narrates "Freedom Sings™". At the Bellarmine performance, he will be joined by co-narrator and Newseum producer, Sonja Gavankar.
In its seventh year, “Freedom Sings” is a national program of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn.
The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government.
The First Amendment Center, with offices at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C., is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is associated with the Newseum – the world’s only interactive museum of news. Its affiliation with Vanderbilt University is through the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies.
The Bellarmine University Institute of Media, Culture and Ethics was created as an educational environment for research, study and discussion so that students can be critical consumers of popular culture as promulgated by mass media. Further, the institute strives to promote ethics in media. Eventually, Bellarmine plans to merge the institute with the Department of Communication to create the School of Communication: Media, Culture and Ethics.
For more information call (502)-452-8329 or visit www.bellarmine.edu/mce.