John Coltrane, best known for his brilliant jazz improvisation is the next topic of the New Commons Project at UMF. His memorable composition, “Alabama,” was written in response to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963. It is a powerful instrumental of the tragic Birmingham, Alabama, attack by the Ku Klux Klan that killed four African-American girls, says the Daily Bulldog. The keynote event for Coltrane’s section of the New Commons Project is a lecture and performance by Anthony Davis labeled “Race, White Backlash and the Spiritual Quest: Jazz Responds to the Struggle for Civil Rights”, this lecture and performance will initiate the New Commons programming for John Coltrane’s “Alabama.” The keynote event will take place on Wednesday, Oct 31, 11:45 a.m., UMF Emery Community Arts Center.