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As part of the Bob Marley Festival, sponsored by Lafayette African and Caribbean Students Association (LACSA), writer, broadcaster, and musician Vivien Goldman will speak on the evolution of reggae music in its cultural and historical context 3-4 p.m , Saturday, Nov. 11 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104.
A reception will follow the lecture 5:30-7 p.m. in the faculty dining room, Marquis Hall.
Goldman has worked extensively in print, radio, and television, specializing in punk and Afro-Caribbean music and culture. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, Interview, Spin, and Rolling Stone.
Her latest work, The Book of “Exodus,” takes readers through the history of Jamaican music, Bob Marley’s personal journey from the Trench Town ghetto to his status as global superstar, and his deep spiritual practice of Rastafari and the roots of this religion. Goldman also traces the biblical themes of the Exodus story and its practical relevance to today’s society through various other art forms, culminating with Marley’s album Exodus.
Goldman was the first journalist to introduce mass white audiences to the Rasta sounds of Bob Marley. Throughout the late 1970s, Goldman watched reggae grow and evolve, and charted the careers of many of its superstars, especially Marley. Goldman currently teaches at the Clive Davis School of Recorded Music at New York University.
“There’s often a misconception of Bob Marley as just a musician,” says George Armah ’08 (Accra, Ghana), president of LACSA. “To himself, he was a purveyor of religion, and music was a tool. He used music as a medium and his songs have the mind-set of universal harmony.”
In organizing the Bob Marley Festival, LACSA aimed to share with the Lafayette community a deeper look at Marley and his ideals, which can also be used as a motif to explore and bring about intellectual discourse on larger issues such as social change, globalization, and poverty.
They also set out to expose the College community to reggae music in its historical and social context, along with its relationship with Caribbean countries, and to create a greater awareness of Caribbean culture.
Another upcoming Bob Marley Festival event will be a lecture by Ellen Fried, professor of food sciences at New York University, who will be speaking on the industrial uses of hemp 7-8 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 15 in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights room 104. The event is cosponsored by Lafayette Environmental Awareness and Protection (LEAP).
Fried, who spoke at the Public Health Advocacy Institute’s 2004 conference on “Legal Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic,” is also a legal consultant for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization.
LACSA will also be organizing a LACSA Logo Design Competition, in which participants will have a chance to win an iPod.
Past LACSA events this semester have included the Reggae Fever Sports Splash, an open mic night organized with Writing Organization Reaching Dynamic Students (W.O.R.D.S.) entitled “Songs of Freedom – Our Tribute to Bob Marley,” Martin Sternstein’s mathemAfrika lecture, and a showing of the documentary film Life & Debt.