Alum
Lillian Dunlap
Diversity coach, executive director of Your Real Stories Inc.
Lillian Dunlap, MME'73 (Jacobs), PhD'92, was a founding director of the IU African American Arts Institute and was key to the development of its three touring ensembles: the IU Soul Revue, the African American Dance Company, and the African American Choral Ensemble.
“There's this myth that you go to college, or you go to graduate school, you learn what you're going to do, you get out, and you go do that. I want to tell you that's never the case or rarely. There are always those things that you don't anticipate that show up.
I am really grateful that when I got to Indiana, I encountered so many things that I just had no knowledge about and helped me to discover that there were a number of things that I could do, and I didn't need to do them all at once.
After finishing my studies, I worked as the assistant director of the Black Music Center at IU, which was really cutting edge at that time. While I was working for the Black Music Center, I met my new boss, Dr. Herman Hudson, who was then vice chancellor for Afro-American Affairs. He and I got to work on a number of projects in addition to my job, and one of those projects was to bring now-Dr. Portia Maultsby from the University of Wisconsin here to start a band, which became the IU Soul Revue.
We weren't trying to make stars for the stage. We were trying to make just good citizens and kids who enjoyed their college years and would leave and think well of their Indiana University experience.
Now, that's what universities are supposed to do. Equip students, feed them, nourish them, provide for them, and then see if they don't turn around and do something that really promotes what it is you're supposed to be about.
I think the importance of journalism is in its ability to really tell the stories of people and connect those stories to the events of their community and the world. We'll all be gone in 100 years, but lots of things will linger. We want people 100 years from now to say, ‘you know, those guys were really on it. They told the truth; they dug for it. They sacrificed for it. They had us in mind all the time.’”
Written By McKenna Cardona
Photos By Olivia Smith