On September 30th, Dillard University will host the Amistad Research Center’s 50th anniversary celebration, “Here I Found a Goldmine: An Elegant Evening of Music and Literary Readings.” The event’s focal point is the eponymous choreopoem “Here I Found a Goldmine,” written and directed by Tommye Myrick, a Big Easy Award honoree. Myrick’s choreopoem will feature an exclusive performance by Deacon John, the 2009 winner of OffBeat Magazine’s Best of The Beat Lifetime Achievement Award. Drawing on his lengthy career as a rhythm and blues virtuoso, Deacon John will honor the Amistad Research Center’s past, present, and future.

Originally conceived in 1966 as a site to archive Civil Rights Era documents and ephemera, the Amistad Research Center (ARC) was first housed at Dillard University, a historically African-American liberal arts college. Since its inception, ARC has expanded to house a nearly 16 million piece collection that includes oral histories, documents and manuscripts dating from the 1790s to the present, photographs, visual art, and scholarly texts on African-American and ethnic groups. In 1987, ARC found a permanent home at Tulane University and continues to be a magnet for scholars and independent researchers.

“Here I Found a Goldmine: An Elegant Evening of Music and Literary Readings” will be held at the Lawless Memorial Chapel on the Dillard University Campus. Doors open at 6:30pm. For more information, visit www.amistadresearchcenter.org