Before Illinois Tech, There Was Jazz on State: Bronzeville's “Stroll” in the Roaring ’20s

Mindy Pugh, Illinois Tech university archivist and campus historian, will lead you back to the years when, as a reporter wrote in 1926, “You could hold a trumpet in the air at 33rd and State and it would play itself”—as there were so many cabarets, theaters, speakeasies, and dance halls nearby.

Come see images and hear recordings as we join those who were here before us—Louis Armstrong, Joe “King” Oliver, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Jelly Roll Morton, and the many others who hit their stride here and transformed New Orleans Ragtime into a new urban art form.

This event is open to all Illinois Tech faculty and staff. Light refreshments will be provided.

The University Archives and Special Collections is located on the lower level of the Paul V. Galvin Library, across from the bound journals room.