Our Meeting was called to order by President Mike McKay

 

 

Announcements
 

Rtn. Chad Johnson presented the Club with 2 Rotary Flags, from his travels to France and Germany.

 

Rtn. Christina Kimerle announced the Fore the Family Golf Tournament. In just 16 years, Fore the Families of RMHC-EIWI has raised more than $750,000 for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Iowa & Western Illinois and is co-sponsored by our Iowa City Thursday Noon Rotary Club.

1 golfer sign up pays for 2 families to stay at the Ronald McDonald House for 1 night. Contact Rtn. Katharine Marshall at katharine.marshall@foriowa.org to get signed up!

 

Rtn. Ryan Bell shared information about the upcoming Earth Day – Tree Planting Initiative.  We've raised $878 of our needed $2500 so far!  Please consider sending in a donation if you don't regularly come to meetings...Each $10 donation covers the cost, planting and maintenance of 1 tree as well as a sign depicting the area as "Rotary Grove". Any corporate donation of $100 or more gets that company's logo on a banner the day of the planting and social media recognition...Thanks to our first 3 corporate sponsors: South Gate Company, West Music and Locals Love Us.

Congrats to the winner of the $50 Bread Garden gift card "early donor" drawing: Rtn. Barb Thomas!

 

Rtn. Chris Catney announced the upcoming Our Redeemer Pancake Breakfast held Saturday, March 3^rd from 7a-1p at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Iowa City. All proceeds benefit the Crisis Center.

 

Rtn. Devin van Holsteijn introduced our program speaker, Damani Phillips. Dr. Damani Phillips is a native of Pontiac, MI, where he began playing saxophone at the age of 10. He currently serves as associate professor of jazz Studies and African-American studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs jazz combos and teaches courses in African-American music, African-American Culture, jazz education and improvisation. He earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from DePaul University (Chicago) and The University of Kentucky in classical saxophone; and a second Master of Music degree in jazz studies from Wayne State University (Detroit). Phillips completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in jazz studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009; becoming one of the first African-Americans in the country to do so.

 

 

Dr. Phillips directed his message around his research which focuses specifically on addressing cultural concerns in the pedagogy of Black music within academia. Phillips recently published his first book titled “What is This Thing Called Soul: Conversations on Jazz and Black Culture”, which delves into the difficult topic of the decline of Black cultural influence/representation in jazz music as traditionally taught in academic spheres.

 

Dr. Phillips shared the influential sources of information that he interviewed for their perspective. A combination of men and women, some with formal education and some which were self-taught musicians. Each interviewee commands significant respect worldwide in the fields of jazz performance and jazz pedagogy. Noteworthy subjects include: Rufus Reid, Lewis Nash, Nicholas Payton and Wycliffe Gordon―along with the late jazz masters Marcus Belgrave and Phil Woods. Interviews are supplemented by original analysis of the nature and validity of these issues contributed by the author.

What Is This Thing Called Soul offers a candid and objective look into pressing issues of race, culture and ethnic value in relation to both jazz music and jazz education? Sensitivity, marginalization and even a fear of offending others has limited open discussion of how the soul of jazz music can be lost in technical boundaries. What Is This Thing Called Soul is the first attempt to directly address such culturally urgent issues in jazz music?

 

President Mike thanked Dr. Phillips for his enlightening presentation and opened the floor for any comments.

 

The meeting ended at 1:00 pm as President Mike led the assembly in reciting The Four Way Test.