IU Soul Revue to tour Memphis hold workshops

Students and faculty with IU Soul Revue will spend their spring break helping musically gifted children in Memphis, Tenn., learn more about the art of performing.

The IU Soul Revue — a music ensemble that performs R&B, funk, soul and hip-hop — will teach workshops for the Stax Music Academy, Overton High School, LeMoyne-Owen College and the University of Memphis, according to a March 11 IU press release.

“It will be a great privilege and a wonderful opportunity for our students to visit and perform in a place where there is so much history,” Tyron Cooper, director of IU Soul Revue and assistant professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies, said in the release.

The Soul Revue will also organize mock auditions for Stax Music Academy students and will perform March 21 at LeMoyne-Owen College.

The Stax Music Academy organizes after-school and summer programs for students in the Soulsville Charter School area, the release said.

Since 2000, the Stax Music Academy has given musically talented students training and direction, while also mentoring the importance of academic success, according to the release.

“The curriculum is rigorous and the students are high achievers,” Charles Sykes, executive director of the African American Arts Institute, said in the release.

The application process is rigorous as well, Sykes said.

“We’d like to see some of these students come to IU, because we think they have the same musical orientation as many of our students,” he said.

The IU Alumni Association, Office of Enrollment Management, Office of Admissions and Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs  are all involved with the spring break visit.

“While the Memphis tour will be an incredible opportunity for the IU Soul Revue to perform and learn about one of the most important cities in the development of soul music, it also will provide an opportunity for us to bring together alumni and to expose potential IU students to the wealth of talent and commitment to diversity here at IU-Bloomington,” James Wimbush, vice president for DEMA, said in the release.

The Soul Revue will also visit the National Civil Rights Museum, located on the site of the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

The trip will last from March 19-22.

“The key for me will be to get our students to understand the historical significance,” Cooper said.

“I’m looking forward to observing our students coming into the reality that they are in a mecca of soul music. I want them to know that they are part of that legacy. I hope that their visit to the Lorraine Motel touches them intrinsically.”

Kathrine Schulze