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The Conversation Project offers Oregon nonprofits free programs that engage community members in thoughtful, challenging conversations about ideas critical to our daily lives and our state's future. Conversations are facilitated by some of Oregon's most respected humanities scholars.
Jazz is a highly democratic art form that is deeply concerned with participation and community, where risk, collaboration, and individual voice are all highly valued. This conversation will look at the literature, economics, and history of jazz, as well as invite participants to think about the social values, such as unity, equality, integrity, and freedom, inherent in the genre. Independent scholar and professional jazz musician Tim DuRoche will explore how jazz represents an “art of the possible” where, as communitarian Peter Block has written, “diversity of thinking and dissent are given space, commitments are made without barter, and the gifts of each person are acknowledged and valued.” The conversation will also consider how jazz as a “community of memory” might inspire us to embrace cooperation once again as an important cornerstone of our culture.
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Equipment required: CD player, digital projector, screen
Program available through October 2013
Tim DuRoche is the Director of Programs for the World Affairs Council of Oregon. Prior to his work with the council, he worked for Portland Center Stage, where he developed initiatives and programs connecting sustainability, civic engagement, historic preservation and the arts. He is on the boards of the state's Cultural Advocacy Coalition, Oregon Creative Industries, and Coalition for Livable Future and is a member of the State Commission on Civic Engagement, the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and the Right Brain Initiative's Governing committee. His writing about visual culture, jazz and performance, planning, urban history, and cultural policy has appeared in a number of print and online publications, including IDEA Magazine, Oregon Humanities, Willamette Week, the Oregonian, Portland Spaces, and Metroscape. DuRoche is a frequent public speaker, interviewer, and moderator for cultural organizations including Wordstock, the City of Portland, the Portland Center for Public Humanities, the Multnomah County Library, Pacific Northwest College of Art, the Portland Jazz Festival, and LiveWire Radio.
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