A program sponsored by the UNH Library’s New Hampshire Library of Traditional Jazz will present the largely untold stories of jazz and the blues as part of the 2012-13 University Dialogue, whose topic this year is “Live Free or Die? A University Dialogue on Freedom and Responsibility. ”

Coordinated by the Discovery Program and Bill Ross of the Library’s Milne Special Collections and Archives, "Live Free or Swing:  A Peoples History of Jazz and Blues” is being facilitated by musician and educator, T. J. Wheeler, who has over 35 years of experience as both a performer and as an artist in residence.

The Wednesday series dates and topics are as follows:

Feb. 20, The Moan ... The African Diaspora, Slavery, and Civil War. The role of Africa, the Caribbean, slavery, and religion in the development of African-American music.

March 27: Freedom, Jim Crow, and the Development of American’s True Art Form: Jazz. How black migration, segregation, and a variety of musical traditions came together to produce jazz.

April 17: The River Runs with the Blues: Jazz Comes Home and the Blues had a Baby. Jazz simultaneously evolves and returns to its roots, while the blues puts a permanent stamp on American popular music

All programs are scheduled on from 5-6:30 p.m. in MUB Theatre II.