ROBIN D.G. KELLEY
A TALK: THE "UN"-YEARS: MONK IN THE EARLY '50s
Friday, 10/26/07, 7 pm
Nasher Museum Auditorium
Free to the Public
At the age of 32 Kelley became one of the youngest full professors in the U.S. This preeminent scholar of the African-American tradition has written books called Race Rebels and Freedom Dreams, and is now finishing a long-awaited authorized biography of Monk (Thelonious: A Life, to be published by the Free Press)— the result of years of support from the Monk family, unprecedented access to archives at the Monk Institute, and nearly a decade of committed labor.
Commenting on both black music and establishment criticism, Kelley’s work on Monk sketches context with razor-sharp dexterity and wide-angle thoroughness, never losing sight of the political complexities of Monk’s appeal. Kelley has observed, for example, that to the white, self-proclaimed “Beat artists” who worshipped Monk at New York’s Five Spot in the 50s, the enigmatic piano man “was black masculinity in its most attractive and threatening form.”
Is this a compliment, a cut, or something even more complex? We find out in "The 'Un'-Years: Monk in the Early '50s," a special Following Monk appearance. Reaching into the massive archive of his new biography, Kelley discusses why Monk matters now.