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The McKelvy House Scholars invite the campus to join a dinner discussion of folk music as a vehicle for social change Wednesday evening.
The meal will begin 6 p.m. at McKelvy House, 200 High Street. Led by Briana Niblick ’06(Hatboro, Pa.), the discussion will start at 6:30 p.m.
“Folk music is a form of music by and for the people of a community,” says Niblick, who is pursuing a civil engineering degree and an A.B. degree with a German major. “It has been and continues to be passed along orally through generations and survives outside of today’s mainstream music industry.”
To investigate the impact of folk music, Niblick will lead an examination of a number of cases presented in the poem “Self-Evident” by Ani DiFranco and the following articles: “The Face of Folk,” an interview with Pete Seeger; “Is Protest Dead” by Jeff Chang; and “U.S. Live 8 Attendees Show Support For Africa: Philadelphia Crowd Enjoys Music, Talks Activism.”
Links to websites on the discussion topics as well as more information about the McKelvy House Scholars program are available on the group’s blog website.
Since 1962, the McKelvy House Scholars program has brought together Lafayette students with a wide range of majors and interests to reside in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. Sunday dinner discussions that engage the students in debate and exchange of ideas are the hallmark of the program; several Wednesday discussions have been added this school year. Most members also contribute to the annual McKelvy Papers, written on a topic of each person’s choice. McKelvy Scholars participate in activities together such as field trips to plays, concerts, and exhibits, and sponsor events for the campus as well.
Past discussions
Sept. 25 — Freedom and Other Remembrance Issues
Sept. 20 — The Powerful Thrust of Language on Civic Arousal
Sept. 14 — Apathy
Sept. 11 — Why Do We Care about One Another?
Briana Niblick ’06 studied how Germans living along a Polish border are seeking cultural identity in collaboration with Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger, professor of foreign languages and literatures.