Jabari Asim, a nationally recognized pop culture pundit, will be in St. Louis on April 30 to promote his book The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why? As the title suggests, Asim’s book examines the use of the infamous racial slur in contemporary times. In order to do so, Asim examined the history of the term, which he says originated with Thomas Jefferson, who helped to crystallize the racist stereotypes that have plagued the African-American community for centuries.
Asim, who was recently a guest on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, will work overtime on April 30, participating in a Left Bank Books-sponsored book reading and a book signing at the Central Branch of the St. Louis Public Library at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.
Left Bank Books will host the internationally lauded poet Obi Nwakanma on April 23 at 7 p.m. in their Central West End location.
After earning his MFA at Washington University in St. Louis, Nwakanma moved on as a graduate fellow at Saint Louis University. Nwakanma weaves the experience of living a troubled experience in Nigeria with simple phrasing to create his art, which has led him to many awards banquets.
Nwakanma has received many honors for his work as a poet. His first experience with writing was as a Nigerian journalist for 13 years.
The event is free to the public.
SLU student Cameron Matthews has been selected by mtvU to perform alongside seasoned artists during the first performance in the network’s concert series Campus Invasion Music Festival ’07 in Austin, Texas, on April 22.
Matthews was chosen by mtvU after entering the network’s Best Music on Campus contest, which aimed to reward student musicians and offer them heightened exposure.
The festival will benefit the Save Darfur Collection.
After a decade of recording music, Bottle Rockets will visit the Lucas School House in St. Louis to record live songs for an upcoming album. The band will record their live set on April 19 and 20 at 9 p.m. Tickets are $15.
Bottle Rockets plans to eschew its traditionally electronic expertise in favor of rearranging their current songs from an acoustic setting.
Aside from earning praise from Stephen King and The New York Times, Bottle Rockets has become a local institution.
The Lucas School House is located at 1220 Allen St.
Sister Hazel, a five-member, Florida-based band of eclectic singer-songwriters, has a problem. Because all of its members are established songwriters, it is impossible to fit their wide range of offerings on their traditional studio albums.
In an effort to help some of the worthy songs that haven’t made the cut, the band has decided to release an album of B-sides called BAM! Volume 1, due out June 8. Lead singer Ken Block said that the band usually culls each album’s track listing from a list of more than 70 candidates, so there was no dearth of material for BAM!, a hodgepodge of styles and types of tracks.
The album will include studio tracks, live recordings and a handful of rarities.
As the St. Louis Jazz & Heritage Festival fades into a one-day affair, another local force in jazz music is burgeoning. This year’s celebration of the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival will span four days, from April 18 to 21. Festival highlights include an appearance from Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, a respected troupe of Los Angeles denizens, and appearances from Mike Metheny and Steve Wiest.
The festival will be held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Jazz at the Bistro (3536 Washington Ave.). This year, 750 students were considered, doubling previous years’ efforts. The event is being held in recognition of Jazz Appreciation Month.
