Rear View Mirror Sessions: Stevie Wonder

Rear View Mirror Sessions: Stevie Wonder

Arts + Public Life, in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts,  Soundrotation, Brain Trust Management, and the UChicago Department of Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity, presents a new installment of Rear View Mirror Sessions.

Since 2017, the Quintessential Listening and Lecture Series led by music historian and DJ Duane Powell has taken audiences on a journey through the lives of musical legends and heroes, from The Isley Brothers, Gladys Knight and Nina Simone, to Chaka Khan, Sly and the Family Stone, and Rick James. Each session features a special guest musical performer drawn from Chicago’s own rich talent and audience participation is always encouraged.

The series continues with a celebration of Stevie Wonder, in conjunction with the UChicago course, Wonder Lab: Learning from the Musical Art and Craft of Stevie Wonder, taught by Prof. Adam Green. One of the defining artists of the recent U.S. and the world, Stevie Wonder is a celebrated and beloved musician, a spiritual visionary, polymath of genres, prophetic truth-teller, and bard of love and loss. His vision refracts the victories, losses and contradictions of Black struggle and endeavor in America.

Following Powell’s presentation, Prof. Green will join him on stage to continue the conversation about Stevie Wonder’s art, life and ambition as a sonic innovator.

After the session, we’ll be treated to a special tribute performance by Tony Cazeau’s NEW BLACK RENAISSANCE Band featuring Maurice Mahon.