The Springsteen Center for American Music will host a Chuck Berry symposium and tribute concert, Oct. 10.
The life and music of Chuck Berry, who was born in October 1926, will be explored in “Chuck Berry at 100,” a symposium and concert that will take place on Oct. 10 at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
The symposium, which is being organized by the university’s Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, will open with a keynote address by RJ Smith, author of the 2022 book “Chuck Berry: An American Life.”
After the speech, according to a press release, “panel discussions and film will examine topics including the birth of rock ‘n’ roll; Berry’s role as a uniquely American storyteller; the intersection of race, identity, and popular culture in his work; the evolution of rock guitar; the global spread of rock ‘n’ roll; and the challenges of interpreting Berry’s complicated legacy in the twenty-first century.”
The Springsteen Center’s executive director, Bob Santelli, said in the press release that “This symposium will explore not only (Berry’s) accomplishments, but also the broader historical and cultural forces that shaped his life and work.”
The symposium will end with a concert of Berry’s music, by performers to be named later.
Tickets will go on sale Sept. 9 at noon; visit springsteencenter.org.
Berry died in 2017, at the age of 90. Bruce Springsteen said at the time: “Chuck Berry was rock’s greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock ‘n’ roll writer who ever lived. This is a tremendous loss of a giant for the ages.”
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