The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences will present “We Are All a Collage: Romare Bearden, Toni Morrison, Duke Ellington,” a free lecture by Robert O’Meally, Ph.D., at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, in the Hulsey Recital Hall, 950 13th St. South.

This event is one of several in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Civil Rights Commemorative series, as well as a part of the UAB and City of Birmingham partnership, 50 Years Forward, the ongoing 50th anniversary commemoration of the seminal events of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

O’Meally, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, will look at how art pieces us together. He will examine several of Bearden’s paintings, as well as works by Morrison and Ellington, and discuss the modernist assertion that we are all collages — as human communities and as individuals.

O’Meally is the founder of Columbia’s Center for Jazz Studies and co-curator of exhibitions at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has written several books, including The Craft of Ralph Ellison, Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday, The Jazz Singers, and Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey. He was the principal writer of Seeing Jazz, the catalogue for the Smithsonian Institute’s exhibit on jazz, painting, and literature.

O’Meally was nominated for a Grammy for his co-production of a Smithsonian record set called “The Jazz Singers.” He also wrote the script for the PBS documentary “Lady Day,” as well as for the documentary accompanying the Smithsonian exhibit “Duke Ellington: Beyond Category.” His works have appeared in the New Republic, the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is currently curating a major exhibition in Paris titled “Black Americans in the City of Light.”

The event is sponsored by the Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities.

About UAB and 50 Years Forward

As an institution committed to service, excellence, diversity and community involvement, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is a proud partner with the City of Birmingham in 50 Years Forward, the ongoing 50th anniversary commemoration of the seminal events of the of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. UAB is joining with others to mark this enduring legacy in a way that looks to the future — to sharing new knowledge that benefits society, to advancing the cause of human rights while educating tomorrow’s leaders and to improving quality of life for all. Learn more at www.uab.edu/50yearsforward.