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AAAI directors enthusiastic about upcoming “Potpourri”

AAAI directors enthusiastic about upcoming “Potpourri” show, move back to IU Auditorium

By: Aggrey Sam

Indiana University African American Arts Institute Potpourri of the Arts performance poster.

For the Indiana University African American Arts Institute (AAAI), Saturday night’s performance of Potpourri of the Arts in the African American Tradition is unique for a couple of reasons.

AAAI, a program within IU’s Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs (OVPDEMA), has welcomed a new face into its group of directors — or rather, welcomed home a familiar face. Additionally, the annual show, which features all three AAAI ensembles — the African American Choral Ensemble, the African American Dance Company, and the IU Soul Revue—is taking place in a bigger venue that allows the ensembles a chance to display their talent in a way that truly fits the diverse performance.

“The name really explains what the Potpourri is about. There’s such a wide range of performance styles that make up the African American tradition. Each ensemble has a very diverse repertoire,” said Charles Sykes, AAAI executive director. “When you come to the Potpourri, you should expect to experience a broad repertoire and great mixture of performance styles.”

I’m excited about the opportunity to reach more people on the IU campus.
Dr. Charles Sykes, Executive Director of the African American Arts Institute

While Sykes was understandably reluctant to reveal all of the elements of the show, he was pleased to discuss the return of former IU student Crystal Taliafero, a renowned musician who has performed with the likes of Billy Joel, Bloomington resident John Mellencamp, and Bruce Springsteen, among other legendary figures.

Crystal Taliafero director of IU Soul Revue “The biggest news is a new acting director for the IU Soul Revue, Crystal Taliafero. When I was a graduate student at IU many years ago, I was a horn coach for the IU Soul Revue and she was a member of my horn section,” said Sykes. “I’m really excited about what she will bring. She always had great energy and I’m looking forward to seeing that in what the Soul Revue brings to the stage.”

Taliafero, a native of Hammond, Ind., is equally excited to be back in her old stomping grounds. Obviously well-equipped to guide her pupils, the music veteran understands the responsibility of holding up the high standards of the ensemble she was once a part of.

“Having gone through the program under the leadership of the founder, Dr. Portia Maultsby, it’s a great honor for me to serve as acting director of the IU Soul Revue and teach as a visiting assistant professor this year. I accepted this position because I felt it was my duty, because of its rich tradition and deep roots in the African American culture and music. It was pretty much the start of my professional career, so I felt it was my time to give back,” said Taliafero. “Our performance at Potpourri will be a funky, high-energy situation, where the audience can look forward to seeing psychedelic experience from the ‘70s, a blues experience from the ‘60s, and a funk and R&B experience from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.”

A similar sense of paying homage to past generations will also be present in the performance of the African American Dance Company. Led by Professor Iris Rosa, the only director the ensemble has known, the dancers will perform an expressive assortment of different techniques, including ballet, contemporary dance, modern dance, and different African diasporic styles, in order to tell a story.

Iris Rosa director of the african american dance company “The audience will experience an array of movement from various perspectives of the dance discipline to tell a story about contemporary living conditions of the human experience, particularly in the Black diaspora. We take stories that are connected to African descendant people in America and outside of the mainland, and we connect that to how people live,” explained Rosa.

“The students are a multicultural group, so they all benefit from the conversations—a lot of people think that we don’t have conversations in dance, that we just go to the studio. But I think to understand how to tell a story and how to express it, they have to have conversations about what the human experience is from their perspective and from a black diasporic perspective. There’s always something new to experience when you see dance, and I think the new experience is the story.”

The African American Dance Company will be performing in China next month, and hopes to get the same type of reception its counterpart, the African American Choral Ensemble received upon embarking on its first European tour, to Germany last spring. That ensemble’s director, Dr. Raymond Wise, says his group is poised to give the Potpourri crowd quite the show.

Raymond Wise director of the african american choral ensemble “The audience can look forward to participating, for one. Generally, all African American music is what we call a collective art. So it’s not only for us, it’s for the audience, as well. So they’ll get to sing along, rock along, clap along, and have some fun. That’s always going to happen. But we also have some wonderful music that is representative of spirituals, gospel music, and music that will just inspire,” said Wise.

“The interesting thing about the Choral Ensemble is we have a new group every semester. That has its pros and its cons. The pros are that we get a new group every semester; the cons are that we get a new group every semester. So, I’m looking forward to the students having this opportunity to perform. Normally, we do our Potpourri concert at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. Performing in IU Auditorium adds a whole other element of excitement and energy.”

Indeed, the move back to IU Auditorium has the entire AAAI eager to explore the full potential of Potpourri, as Sykes explained.

“Potpourri’s only been in the auditorium once, in 2004. I’m excited about the opportunity to play for a larger audience. I’m excited for the opportunity for us to do some things technically that we were not able to do at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater,” said Sykes. “I’m excited about the opportunity to reach more people on the IU campus. I would expect that we would have more students in the audience, which is the ultimate goal for me. So if we can have a great show—and I’m pretty sure we will—I think that we’ll be able to grow our audience a bit.”

The IU African American Arts Institute’s Potpourri of the Arts is Saturday, November 5, at the IU Auditorium. The show starts promptly at 8 p.m., and tickets are available at the IU Auditorium Box Office. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $15 for children under the age of 18, and $10 for IU students.

AAAI directors enthusiastic about upcoming “Potpourri” show, move back to IU Auditorium

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