Category: Event

On Monday, October 26, the American Studies program will devote an evening to pondering the imminent American election. All are welcome. We look forward to a lively discussion with students and alumni. Sign up for the Zoom webinar here.

We often treat jazz like an old painting, a precious object to be handled with care. But what of jazz’s present, and its future? We are living in jazz’s second century, and it is a golden age. In Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century, the acclaimed critic and journalist Nate Chinen has chronicled jazz in our time.

Named one of the best books of 2018 by NPR, GQ, Billboard and JazzTimes, Playing Changes is the definitive guide to jazz now, and a musical history of the present. “Whatever you choose to call the music, ‘jazz’ is as volatile and generative now as at any time since its beginnings.” In jazz parlance, “playing changes” has long referred to an improviser’s resourceful path through a chord progression. Playing Changes expands on that idea, following the musicians and the music through the many ideological, technological, theoretical, and practical changes that jazz has seen. The book’s musical cast is broad and multi-generational, from Wayne Shorter to Brad Mehldau to Esperanza Spalding. The music in it is alive. Chinen traces the influence of jazz education; considers a globalized jazz ecology; and explores the pollination between jazz and other musics, like hip-hop and R&B.

Join us at the Bimhuis for an afternoon with Nate Chinen, a former critic for The New York Times. He will read from the book, with musical illustration, and discuss its themes with moderator George Blaustein.

This event is sponsored by the Bimhuis, the John Adams Institute, and the Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA).

Thursday, November 15, 2018
6:30-10pm
Belle van Zuylenzaal
University Library
Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam

The western classic The Searchers (1956) is one of the most influential movies of the post-war period. It is a psychological study of a revenge-driven Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) and his quest to find his kidnapped niece. Its themes are grand—clash of cultures, racism, chaos versus civilization, family and honor—but

what made it so groundbreaking was the intensity and ambiguity of the main character. Filmmakers of the so-called “New Hollywood” were influenced by Wayne’s uncompromising and psychotic portrayal, in particular Paul Schrader’s Hardcore and Martin Scorsese’s chilling Taxi Driver.

George Blaustein (American Studies, UvA) will consider John Ford’s greatest film as the apotheosis of the Western as a genre, but also a unique artifact, remarkable for its afterlife inside and outside the United States. This short lecture will reflect on the workings of the genre that won’t die: what the Western meant, as well as what it might mean now, as new spins on the Western abound.

Marko Petrovic (librarian and cinephile) will give a short introduction about the making of the film and about the contradictory persona of the legendary director John Ford.

Seats are limited, so please register via email to bibliotheek@uva.nl.

The U.S. midterm elections take place Tuesday, November 6. We are two years into the Trump era, and rarely have the midterms been so important and so rancorous. The American Studies faculty of the University of Amsterdam will reflect on local, national, and international reverberations, in light of the deeper past and with an eye toward the future. With presentations by Ruud Janssens, Katy Hull, Eduard van de Bilt, and George Blaustein.

All are welcome. Please register by email to secr-geschiedenis-fgw@uva.nl.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018, 5:30-8pm
Bushuis/Oost-Indisch Huis, room F0.21
Kloveniersburgwal 48
1012CX Amsterdam

5:30pm – Welcome
6-7pm – Forum and discussion
7-8pm – Borrel
Drinks and snacks will be served.