As part of Black History Month, Kevin Comtois, who teaches in the Global Studies Department at Northern Essex, will share his passion for American Music in a presentation titled “From Slave Spirituals to Hip Hop: The Social and Political History of American Music”.

NECC’s Kevin Comtois will give a presentation on American Music.

Comtois will present at the Beverly Public Library, 32 Essex St., on Monday, Feb. 10 at 10:30 a.m. and at the Wilmington Memorial Library, 175 Middlesex Ave., on Wednesday, Feb. 26 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Both presentations are free and open to the public.

Using recorded music, film clips, and still images, Comtois will trace the evolution and social and political context of American popular music through four centuries ranging from slave spirituals, minstrelsy, blues, jazz, and Rock and Roll.

Kevin Comtois has been teaching History at NECC since 1999. In 2005 he was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study Jazz with Dr. Gerald Early (an expert on the evolution of Jazz in America) at Washington University, St Louis.

His presentation is part of NECC’s Speakers’ Bureau.   For more information on the college’s Speakers’ Bureau visit, www.necc.mass.edu/speakers-bureau, call 978 556-3862 or email speakersbureau@necc.mass.edu.