October 14, 2003

Jazz Musician Hugh Masekela To Be Keynote
Speaker At Human Rights Conference
Internationally renowned jazz musician, Hugh Masekela, who from the 1960s to 1980s traveled all over the world to entertain and mobilize people against apartheid in South Africa, will be the keynote speaker at a half-day conference, "Artists in the Cause of Human Rights," sponsored by the UNESCO Chair & Institute of Comparative Human Rights.

The conference will take place in the South Campus Ballroom on Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., with registration beginning at 8 a.m. Admission is free, but advance registration is recommended; please call 860.486.1038.

The conference focuses on the crucial role artists have played in struggles for human rights by giving expression to the ideals of human rights and helping sustain those striving to realize their rights.

Following the conference, Masekela will give an evening jazz concert at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, starting at 8 p.m. Tickets may be purchased from the box office.

Joining Masekela for both the conference and the concert will be artists from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, a non-profit educational institution that offers talented young musicians from around the world college-level training by America's jazz masters.

Other conference participants include writers Arturo Arias of Guatemala and Conny Braam of the Netherlands, who use their narrative skills to focus the world's attention on societal abuses in Central America and South Africa under apartheid, respectively; Kathleen Patricia Thrane, painter and documentary-photographer, who has used her art to advance the cause of human rights in the Philippines and South Africa; and Hugh Blumenfeld, singer, songwriter, and essayist, who promotes human rights and social justice through his music and articles.