Renowned Scholar on Vietnam War Era Music Speaks in Rochester, March 8

Related Media

Hugo Keesing

ROCHESTER, NY (02/24/2011)(readMedia)-- Nazareth College is pleased to announce a presentation by the internationally recognized scholar, Hugo Keesing, author and producer of The New York Times best-selling anthology of music from the Vietnam War era titled, Next Stop Is Vietnam. The free lecture will take place on Tuesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. in the Nazareth College Art Center's Callahan Theatre. Nazareth College is located at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y. 14618. For more information, contact the Nazareth College Arts Center box office at (585) 389-2170.

Keesing is also speaking earlier the same day, from noon-1:30 p.m., at Rundel Memorial Building of the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County. With More than Songs: What Music Can Tell Us about the Vietnam War, he will discuss the ways the Vietnam conflict and various people associated with it have been represented in popular music and how music can be used as a lens through which to study Americans' experiences with and perceptions of the war. This forum takes place at the Rundel Auditorium, 3rd floor, Rundel Memorial Building of the Central Library of Rochester & Monroe County, 115 South Ave.

Keesing is a definitive expert on the music of the Vietnam War. His newest work, Next Stop Is Vietnam, named one of the top ten re-issues of the year by Rolling Stone, is the authoritative study of the subject and contains 13 CDs of all the most iconic music of the war. There are more than 300 songs featuring The Doors, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, and more. They range from a folk ballad released just before U.S. troops landed to a 2008 song about the aftereffects that veterans still suffer. Keesing put the collection together. It's a project he's worked on since the early 1970s, when he taught psychology courses to U.S. troops a few hundred miles up the coast from Saigon.

Nazareth College is co-sponsoring Keesing's visit with the Rochester Public Library, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 20, in conjunction with the Rochester-Monroe County Vietnam-Era Veterans Oral History Project. To learn more about the oral history project, contact Rochester City Historian Christine L. Ridarsky at (585) 428-8095 or Christine.Ridarsky@libraryweb.org.

Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is a coeducational college with undergraduate and graduate studies in the liberal arts and sciences and professional programs in health and human services, education, and management. The College is located on 150 scenic acres near Rochester, New York, and currently enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. Nazareth has a strong commitment to experience-based learning and civic engagement. In the past decade, Nazareth has produced 18 Fulbright recipients and two Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowships. For more information on the College, visit www.naz.edu.