Súle Greg Wilson Photographs, 1975-1977
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Administrative/Biographical History
Súle Greg C. (Calvin) Wilson attended Oberlin and graduated with the Class of 1979. He subsequently earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts from New York University.
Drummer, dancer, folklorist, and researcher, Wilson studied drumming under Baba Ngoma as well as the premier students of Baba Ishangi, Ladji Camara, and Chief Bey and performed with many of the finest artists and groups in the field, including Babatunde Olatunji, the International Afrikan-American Ballet, Africa in Motion Dance Theater, and the Bennu Ausar Aurkestra. After years of performance and networking in the banjo community, Súle helped create the historic Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina in 2005. Proficient in U.S., Celtic, Caribbean, and Mande music, Súle has also delved into Indian, Indonesian, and numerous African, Middle Eastern, and European traditions as a percussionist.
In 1992 his book, The Drummer’s Path: Moving the Spirit with Ritual and Traditional Drumming, was published by Destiny Books, followed by a related recording on cassette and compact disc in 1994 by Destiny Recordings. The sound recording, entitled The Drummer’s Path: African and Diaspora Percussive Music featured Wilson on percussion with a number of other musicians. In 1997 Wilson published African American Quilting: The Warmth of Tradition (Rosen Publishing Group). In 1999 the Rosen Publishing Group also released his book Kwanzaa! Africa Lives in a New World Festival.
From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Súle Greg Wilson was a dance teacher and choreographer at Resounding Joy, Inc., and a dance teacher at Culture Shock Dance Center and at the Mission Valley YMCA in San Diego, California. For over a decade, Wilson was a history teacher at Tempe Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona. He is currently C.E.O. of Out of the Box Life/Transformational Travel, also in Tempe.
Sources Consulted
Oberlin College Alumni Directory, 2004, 2010.
Inner Traditions/Bear & Company website at https://www.innertraditions.com/author/sule-greg-wilson/, accessed 26 February 2018.
Súle Greg Wilson Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/sule.wilson, accessed 26 February 2018.
Súle Greg Wilson website at www.sulegregwilson.com, accessed 26 February 2018.
Author: Anne Cuyler Salsich Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
This small photographic collection comprises two series: Series 1 holds two developed rolls of 35mm black and white negatives and contact sheets from them. Series 2 consists of 35mm color slides. They date from 1975-1977, taken by Wilson during his first through third years at Oberlin. The negatives and contact sheets cover two events: a geology field trip to a road cut in October 1976 and the Commencement of 1977, also covered in the color slides.
The color slides (Kodachrome and Ektachrome) cover Wilson’s girlfriend and family seeing him off to the airport for his first year at Oberlin in 1975; a geology field trip in October 1976; the Sam Green Quartet performing; the 1977 Commencement; and a number of pictures of his friends at Oberlin. These include James McBride (writer and musician), his roommate; Linda Vitale, Ray Ramirez (musician), Moses Hogan (the late composer), Jocelyn Hines, John Jang (composer, pianist and educator), and Peter Hyman. Also included is the late Dr. Yakuba Saaka (1945-2008), former Professor of African American Studies at Oberlin.
INVENTORY
Box 1
Series 1. Negatives (35mm) and Contact Sheets (black and white), 1976-77 (66)
Geology field trip, October 1976
Commencement weekend, May 1977 (in folder above)
Series 2. Color Slides (35mm), 1975-77 (119)
Geology field trip, October 1976
Commencement weekend, May 1977 (in folder below)
Súle Greg Wilson’s family and friends, Professor Saaka, performances,
buildings, Lake Erie shore, and miscellaneous, 1975-77