David Coplan Describes the Sounds of the City in South Africa March 24, 2008

The Penn Bookstore will welcome David Coplan at 4:30 p.m., Monday, Mar. 24, to discuss his book, In Township Tonight: South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre. The discussion and signing will be held on the second floor in the bookstore's multi-media event space.
In this work, Coplan explores over three centuries of the diverse history of South Africa’s black popular culture. He gives us a comprehensive tour of the South African vibrant culture, taking us from indigenous musical traditions into the world of slave orchestras, penny whistlers, clergyman-composers, the gumboot dances of mineworkers, and touring minstrelsy and vaudeville acts. He traces the emergence of the first jazz bands, the South African marabi, kwela, and mbaqanga dance styles, and charts the development of black theatre. Coplan also draws on the social and political developments in South Africa over the past thirty years, reflecting on the struggle to end apartheid and the groundbreaking shifts in South African politics and society that followed.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

Penn Bookstore - 3601 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Official Website: http://www.upenn.edu/bookstore