"America Changed Through Music": Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music at 60

Ross Hair and Thomas Ruys Smith are currently organising a one-day conference to mark the 60th anniversary of Harry Smith's landmark Anthology of American Folk Music. Taking place at the UEA London Campus on Saturday September 15th, the day features a keynote from Professor Geoff Ward, a variety of papers from an international panel of speakers, and free musical performances. Booking is now open, so for more information and to download a booking form visit http://www.americachangedthroughmusic.com/.

Containing Multitudes at the Forum

The School of American Studies presents a public exhibition of the letters of Sarah Hicks Williams, a northerner in the slaveholding South, hosted at the Millennium Library Norwich, this October as part of Norfolk's Black History Month 2012. In addition, there will be a series of free public lectures and cafe conversations hosted by Fusion at Forum and the Millennium Library, with cafe conversations at Cafe Bar Marzano. Further details on the exhibition, public lectures, and cafe conversations can be found here.

AMS Poster Competition: Winners Announced!

Alex Francis's winning entry!

The panel of judges for the AMS poster competition met last week and although the quality of entries was outstanding, we all agreed that Alex Francis’s design (above) wonderfully encapsulated the themes of the exhibition and the wider one of Black History Month for 2012, “Black Champions”. Alex was therefore awarded first place and his design will be used on all promotional material relating to the exhibition and the series of public lectures and cafe conversations during the 1st – 14th October. Both Victoria Mccollum’s and Megan Snyders’ designs (below) were also judged as serious contenders and they were awarded second and third place respectively. An awards ceremony will be held during the two week exhibition (date to be confirmed) where Alex, Victoria, and Megan will receive their prize money. It is hoped that all artwork submitted to the competition will be exhibited at Fusion in the Forum during the exhibition. Congratulations again to the winners, and thanks to all those who submitted designs.

Victoria Mccollum

Megan Snyder