“Pursuance: Avant-Garde Jazz and Innovative Writing,” a day-long symposium to commemorate the intersection of avant-garde jazz and innovative writing, will be held May 1 at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus, McGaw Hall, 802 W. Belden Ave., Room 312.

Scholars representing universities from around the country will convene for panel discussions centered on jazz and literary criticism. The day opens at 10 a.m. with remarks by Robert Zamsky, a visiting professor of English at DePaul with expertise in jazz and American literature. Panel breakouts are as follows:

10:15 a.m. to noon. Panel I - “Innovative Jazz, Its Context and Reach”
Kimberly Ruffin, assistant professor of English, Bates University, “Jazzin’ the Environment: Jayne Cortez’s Ecocriticism;” John Gennari, assistant professor of English, University of Vermont, “Blaxploitation Bird: Charlie Parker, Ross Russell and the Racialized Masculinity of Jazz Writing;” Paul Allen Anderson, assistant professor of American culture, University of Michigan, “Some Semblance of Wholeness: Ralph Ellison’s Bop Problem.”

1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Panel II – “John Coltrane and the Politics of Icon Formation”
Aldon Nielsen, Kelly Professor of American Literature, Pennsylvania State University, “The Coltrane Exception: The Politics of Reception;” Herman Beavers, associate professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, “John Coltrane and the Politics of Biography.”

2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Panel III – “Post-Bop Poetics”
William J. Harris, associate professor of English, University of Kansas, “Amiri Baraka Writes Free Jazz;” Norman Finkelstein, professor of English, Xavier University, “Swung/book: Jazz as Method and Metaphor in the Work of Nathaniel Mackey;” Tyrone Williams, professor of English, Xavier University, “The Return of / to Style: Strick and the Song of the Andoumboulou.”

According to organizers of “Pursuance: Avant-Garde Jazz and Innovative Writing” – Zamsky and Amor Kohli, of DePaul’s African and Black Diaspora Studies Program – the deliberate reference to the work of Coltrane is in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the recording of the deceased jazz legend’s “A Love Supreme,” considered by many jazz critics to be his signature album and one of the most important jazz albums to emerge in the 1960s.

“We wanted Coltrane’s recording to serve as an inspiration for this conference, just as it has served as the inspiration and model for so many works of literature that followed it,” said Kohli. “While the title ‘Pursuance’ is a reference to a section of ‘A Love Supreme,’ it might also refer to the movement that characterizes so many works of literature and music – of chasing and reaching for something elusive yet somehow still within reach.”

Symposium attendees are invited back to DePaul’s campus after dinner for a poetry reading by Nathaniel Mackey, renowned jazz-influenced poet and professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The poetry reading will begin at 7 p.m. in Cortelyou Commons, 2422 N. Freemont St. Members of the DePaul University Jazz Ensemble will perform prior to Mackey’s reading.

All events are free and open to the public. Parking is available at the Sheffield Parking Facility, 2335 N. Sheffield Ave. For more information about “Pursuance: Avant-Garde Jazz and Innovative Writing” visit the event Web site at: http://condor.depaul.edu/~abds/pursuance .