Blues and news from New Orleans

The music of a resilient New Orleans comes to the University of Dayton when Delta blues harmonica player J.D. Hill takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21 in Sears Recital Hall at the 15th annual Humanities Symposium.

Hill, who received one of the first homes in Habitat for Humanity's New Orleans Musicians' Village after Hurricane Katrina, will be accompanied by guitarist Kenny Holladay.

After their performance in Sears Hall, which includes "Babe You Don't Have to Go," "Ain't Got a Home" and "Highway 39," they'll move on to ArtStreet, where they'll jam with music professor Willie Morris III, Eric Suttman and UD students.

Hill comes to campus as part of the 15th annual Humanities Symposium, “Race, Class and History: New Orleans Post Katrina," and will be joined on stage by the Rev. Inman Houston, director of the Habitat for Humanity Musicians’ Village.

Houston, a pastor at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans, will speak about the role of faith communities in reconstructing New Orleans and about Musicians Village, a 70-home project for low-income musicians and those displaced by the hurricane.

Hill, who performed for President Bush when he visited Musicians’ Village in 2006, has been featured in Rolling Stone, recently filmed a commercial with Harry Connick Jr. for Lincoln Continental and will appear in an episode of This Old House on PBS.

For more information call 937-229-3490 or go to http://universityofdayton.blogs.com/newsinfo/2007/08/race-class-and-.html.