Insight News

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May 25th

Irma McClaurin

Irma McClaurin, PhD is the Culture and Education Editor for Insight News of Minneapolis. A bio-cultural anthropologist and writer, she lives in Raleigh, NC (www.irmamcclaurin.com) (@mcclaurintweets). Most recently, she provided technical assistance to the Friends of Oberlin Cemetery to acquire Landmark status for an historic African American Cemetery in Raleigh, NC.

(Artspeak) Transcending Sound-Affirming Humanity: Sweet Honey... “She Rocks!” the Twin Cities

Thursday, 19 March 2009 13:43 Irma McClaurin, PhD

Those of us who go to concerts, and are not part of the deaf and hard of hearing communities, take sound for granted. We listen with our ears, occasionally move our bodies to rhythms and beats that we hear, and clap loudly when we are pleased with what we hear. But what if your world is soundless? How do you appreciate a concert? Sweet Honey in the Rock (www.sweethoney.com) has the key to this conundrum.

Artspeak: Men in Gray...Monknificent

Thursday, 12 March 2009 00:00 Irma McClaurin

Last Friday night, March 6, 2009, my mom and I had the pleasure of listening to the "Men in Gray," also known as the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Pulitizer prize winning music director Wynton Marsalis. Their tribute to Thelonious Monk, performed at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall, highlighted the range and genius of Monk's contribution to jazz. Born in 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Thelonius Sphere Monk lived in New York City with his family from the age of four onward. He attended Stuyvesant High School, but never graduated; and while his sister took piano lessons, Monk's affinity for music and the piano were essentially self-taught, and began as early as age nine, signaling him as a musical child prodigy.