The noise in the Teter NST went from ambient to lively Wednesday night as performers in the annual Potpourri of the Arts in the African American Tradition assembled a preview of the event, which will take place Nov. 5 in the IU Auditorium.
The event is sponsored by the African American Arts Institute at IU.
To Raymond Wise, director of the African American Choral Ensemble, the performance is about more than just its individual parts, he said.
“It’s my life,” Wise said. “I’ve grown up in a family of artists.”
The choral ensemble is one of three groups that compose the African American Arts Institute.
The institute’s other two groups, the IU Soul Revue and the African American Dance Company, will also be performing in the event.
Wise said the synergy of cultures is what has infused African American art forms into the cultural history of the United States.
Wise said the institute is necessary because it promotes and maintains the history of African American art.
“What’s important about African American arts is that they are such a part of the American art form,” Wise said.
Senior James Wilder, who plays saxophone in the IU Soul Revue, said it was this carrying-on of culture that has kept him in the group.
“At the end of the day, there are a lot of messages we put out, but at the core of it all, it’s love,” Wilder said.
Wilder said he wants attendees at the upcoming event to feel like they have experienced something special when they leave the performance, even if they don’t know exactly what that special something is yet.
He said the love he sees in every facet of music can be taken away from the event, and he hopes the audience does.
Dexter Clardy, a singer in the IU Soul Revue, said arts in an African American context to him just means American culture.
“It’s essentially an expression of the oppression we’ve suffered, and an expression of some good times in African American history as well,” Clardy said.
Clardy said when he got to IU, he realized the majority of the population was not black.
He said part of the institute’s job is maintaining African American representation on campus and making sure the experiences of African American students are not whitewashed or covered up.
Crystal Taliefero is the director of the IU Soul Revue and a full-time professional musician who has toured with the likes of John Mellencamp and Billy Joel.
She said she wants her students to take away a sense of unity and well-being from the institute, but she also wants them to learn from the experience.
When the Institute was established, it had a small house with poor ventilation, according to Taliefero.
Now, she said, they have millions of dollars in funding.
She said she wishes she could be an undergraduate student again just to experience what her students experience now.
“Our music is the root of all styles of music, with the exception of classical,” Taliefero said. “It’s the heartbeat of American music.”
