A cultural education

IU’s African American Arts Institute strives to offer students an opportunity
not only to earn school credit but also to obtain a cultural education.

The AAAI promotes African-American culture and offers three distinct ensembles for students to participate in — IU Soul Revue, African American Dance Company and the African American Choral Ensemble.  

Charles Sykes, executive director of the AAAI, said it is the first program to specialize in African American music and also offers course credit for performance.

“You can’t find another one like it, as far as I know,” Sykes said. “It’s the only of its kind.”

Sykes said this is appealing to students because they can take part in something they are interested in, like music or dance, while earning credit toward graduation.
He added that the arts institute employs a number of graduate and undergraduate students to work with the ensembles.

“Each one of the ensembles has one or more associate instructors that help with musical arrangements,” he said.

Participating students major in various areas, including music, arts administration, telecommunications and journalism. Whatever their studies, many participants see musical success and fame after leaving the institute’s ensembles.

Late alumnus Gabriel Paige, who performed with the African American Dance Ensemble, had a part in movies such as “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” and Soul Revue alumnus Isaiah Sanders was a keyboardist for Stevie Wonder.

Nathanael Fareed Mahluli, former Soul Revue director, said the group performs a wide range of black popular music. He said this includes a lot of Motown, as well as music from artists such as Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole and Ella Fitzgerald.

Mahluli said it is important for people to realize that being in this type of ensemble takes a lot of time and dedication.

“It takes an amazing amount of discipline to keep up your ability to perform,” Mahluli said. “It’s challenging to try social interaction and keep up the teamwork and entertain a goal.”

Mahluli also said this kind of work ethic is vital when performing before big names like The Temptations, for whom the Soul Revue opened in 2009. It also opened for James Brown when he came to the IU Auditorium in 2006, and the African American Choral Ensemble opened for Ray Charles the same year.

Sykes said the AAAI is a way for a student to delve deeper into something he or she is interested in, even just for the joy of performing.

“We’re living in a world with the opportunity to interact across racial boundaries,” Sykes said. “For students not planning to become performing artists but want to continue performing in school, they can have this opportunity but don’t have to be concerned with their degree.”