The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 7, 2009

Closeup: Poet, vocalist perform together at MSU

MANKATO — Philip Bryant grew up on Chicago’s South Side in a working class neighborhood where parents wanted their kids to go to college instead of work in factories and steel mills.

He made it out of the neighborhood to become an award-winning writer and English professor at his alma mater, Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. His second book, “Stompin’ At The Grand Terrace: A Jazz Memoir in Verse,” was published this year by Blueroad Press in Janesville.

Now, he and vocalist Carolyn Wilkins have teamed up for a performance, called “A Stompin’ Suite.” Bryant will give a talk on craft 3 p.m. today as part of the Good Thunder Reading Series, and the reading, part of “A Stompin’ Suite,” will be 7:30 p.m. tonight at MSU and is also part of the MSU Performance Series.

Bryant’s book takes the reader to the streets, clubs and churches of the South Side of Chicago during the 1950s and ’60s.

Many of the pieces are set in Bryant’s childhood home, where his father, James, and his friend, Preston, both blue collar workers, listen to jazz records and talk about music and life.

Jazz pianist and vocalist Carolyn Wilkins has been a part of the Boston music scene for more than 20 years as a performer, educator and composer.

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