The Langston Hughes Project at HT

On March 2nd, Huston-Tillotson hosted a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes's Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz orchestrated by musician Ron McCurdy. Called the Langston Hughes Project, the event took place in HT's King Seabrook Chapel, and was a hit with everyone in attendance.

The event was a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’s kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite. Ask Your Mama is Hughes’s homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is a twelve-part epic poem which Hughes scored with musical cues drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop and progressive jazz, Latin “cha cha” and Afro-Cuban mambo music, German lieder, Jewish liturgy, West Indian calypso, and African drumming — a creative masterwork left unperformed at his death.

By way of videography, this concert performance links the words and music of Hughes’ poetry to topical images of Ask Your Mama’s people, places, and events, and to the works of the visual artists Langston Hughes admired or collaborated with most closely over the course of his career — the African-inspired mural designs and cubist geometries of Aaron Douglas, the blues and jazz-inspired collages of Romare Bearden, the macabre grotesques of Meta Warrick Fuller and the rhythmic sculptural figurines and heads and bas reliefs of Richmond Barthe, the color blocked cityscapes and black history series of Palmer Hayden and Jacob Lawrence. Together the words, sounds, and images recreate a magical moment in our cultural history, which bridges the Harlem Renaissance, the post-World War II Beat writers’ coffeehouse jazz poetry world, and the looming Black Arts performance explosion of the 1960.

Dr. Oldmixon's Intro to the Arts class visits Austin's Umlauf Sculpture Gardens

Thursday, March 2, Dr. Oldmixon’s Introduction to the Arts class visited the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, one of Austin’s art treasures.  The students watched a film featuring the late UT professor and sculptor, world renowned Charles Umlauf, speaking about his life, training and work.  The video also explained the lost wax method for casting sculptures and other processes involved in the creation of the sculptures. 

 
After the video, the students walked through the indoor gallery with the curator, viewing the current exhibition on Umlauf and his most famous student and model, Farah Fawcett.  That exhibit includes examples of Fawcett’s sculptures beside her teacher’s work and his sculptures featuring her as a model. 


 After visiting the exhibit, the students went on a guided tour of the sculptures in the gardens,
stopping to discuss (and apply the terms for analyzing sculpture that they are learning) specific works.  The sculptures “War Mother,” “The Kiss,” and those of animals particularly intrigued the students.

Huston-Tillotson hosts event for Central Texas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French

On March 4th, Dr. Anne Cirella-Urrutia hosted an event for the Central Texas Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French (CTAATF) here at Huston-Tillotson.

French educators from around Texas joined with students to hold a cultural and educational symposium.

Musician Julie Slim & Rendezvous performed for those in attendance.

A message from Dr. Rosalee Martin, Acting Dean

Dr. Martin has been the Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for the past three years.  In that position she has improved faculty morale, encouraged faculty and student excellence, have supported faculty professional development, and have  and have embraced the institutional motto of IDEAL, ie, integrity, diversity, excellence, accountability and leadership. 

This blog will highlight the many accomplishments of students and faculty members that placed HT in a positive light in the Austin community, in Texas, the U.S. and globally. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest academic unit at HT.  It is housed in three buildings and part of a fourth.  There are 43 full time professors and 36 adjuncts and three administrative assistants. CAS has 13 majors with minors, and a minor in religious studies.  Additionally, the only master’s program is in CAS, Master’s in Educational Leadership.  CAS is divided into seven departments: Education Preparation (Dr. Ruth Kane, Chair), English (Dr. Katherine Oldmixon, Chair), Humanities and Fine Arts (Dr. Stephen Burnaman, Chair), Kinesiology (Dr. Carlos Cervantes, Chair), Mathematics (Dr. Ahmad Kamalvand, Chair), Natural Sciences (Dr. Kathy Schwab, Chair) and Social and Behavior Sciences (Dr. Lorraine Samuels, Chair).

CAS faculty members are professionals who are well-known in their field.  Many have published during in professional journals, have attended seminars/workshops and many have present individually and on panels locally, nationally and abroad.  Some have written major grants supporting its programs, as well as bringing other university colleagues to our campus.  Students are provided excellent education as is evident by the student-centered activities used, their exposure to professionals at conferences and workshops, their participation in research activities and their internships in major related areas. These types of modeling and networking experiences are invaluable as students move from the status of student to professional.

CAS will miss our seasoned professors who will retire May 2017.  Dr. Horatio Pena, professor of Spanish, retires after 28 years at HT.  In addition to teaching Spanish, he fills the halls of Jackson Moody with timely exhibits around current events and holidays. Also, Dr. Carol Adams-Means, professor of Communication, will retire for the second time.  She retired from Prairie-View A & M and now from HT after 8 years.  She is instrumental in reviving our Communication program and producing radio programs for broadcast on HBCURadionet.com, Sirius XM Channel 142, and Our Page One Satellite News Magazine.