Acclaimed ragtime pianist highlights closing event of World’s Fair exhibition

Reginald Robinson, ragtime pianist and composer

The University of Illinois at Chicago African-American Cultural Center presents “A Victorian Holiday Costume Party,” the closing reception for the center’s exhibit “The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition.”

Ragtime pianist and composer Reginald Robinson is scheduled to perform.

WHEN:

Dec. 5
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

WHERE:

UIC African-American Cultural Center
Addams Hall, 2nd floor
830 S. Halsted St.

DETAILS:

The costume party serves as the culminating event for “The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,” a seven-month exhibition examining black Americans’ contributions to the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Reginald Robinson, noted composer, jazz pianist, educator and recording artist, is widely known for his ragtime compositions. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, or “genius” grant, in 2004.

The exhibition, inspired by the same-titled pamphlet coauthored by famed civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, highlights the historical accounts of black Americans’ thoughts, feelings and experiences related to the Chicago’s World’s Fair.

Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to wear Victorian era costumes.

Admission is free. For more information, call (312) 996-9549.