In observance of Black History Month, part-time IUPUC professors Mohammed Ansari and Barney Quick will discuss the significance of voodoo and blues to African American culture.

The event, organized by the IUPUC Division of Liberal Arts, will begin at 2:30 on Wednesday, Feb. 24, in the Summerville Room in the Columbus Learning Center. The presentation, “Carriers of African American Heritage,” will detail why the blues artist and voodoo doctor/priest are considered carriers of African American heritage.

Ansari’s presentation, “Zora Neale Hurston and Hoodoo Culture,” examines Zora Hurston’s participation in and observations of the voodoo culture. Hurston is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of 20th-century African-American literature. Hurston published four novels, two books of folklore, an autobiography, numerous short stories, and several essays, articles and plays.

Hurston studied voodoo practices in Jamaica, Haiti, and the British West Indies. She took photographs and recorded songs, dances, and rituals, and included her observations in her works including “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Mules and Men,” and “Tell My Horse.”

Quick’s presentation, “The Blues Comes Upriver,” will examine the origins and perpetuation of various connotations associated with blues music, including people’s assumptions regarding what the term “blues music” means. Quick will look at blues lyrics, the way blues recordings have been marketed over the last 90 years, and the actual life circumstances of some blues figures whose contributions have been shrouded in legend.

“I hope people come away with a greater understanding of the levels of consideration involved in a simple phrase such as “blues history” or “jazz history,” Quick said. “I also hope that those attending will have a fuller conception of the lives, careers, musicianship and impact of some major black-music figures.”

Black History Month, celebrated each February, honors the struggles and triumphs of millions of American citizens as well as their contributions to the nation’s cultural and political life.

Quick is an adjunct lecturer of music, and Ansari is an adjunct lecturer of folklore, for the Division of Liberal Arts.