Hale Smith lectures at the University of Connecticut

16 Hale Smith lectures can be found in the Black Experience in the Arts reel-to-reel collection. Smith was also the course's longtime co-instructor and responsible for selecting the class' many guest speakers since he knew many of the artists. In his 1972 lecture, Smith spoke to students about black composers. Smith, who at the time was one of the few black composers whose work was performed by the New York Philharmonic, educated students about African-American composers such as William Grant Still, Howard Swanson,and Ulysses Kay. Smith admitted he struggled with what constitutes black music because its such a fluid art form. He had reached the conclusion that jazz music, because of its proximity to blues, has a clear connection to black identity and cultural heritage. But Smith found less of a racial connection to composition and classical music. He closed his presentation with a performance of blues composition. Smith spoke on 10/3/1972 (2015-0002/RR14), 10/9/1973 (2015-0002/RR45), the fall of 1974 with no exact date provided (2015-0002/RR46), 1/28/1975 (2015-0002/RR47), 10/7/1975 (2015-0002/RR322), 1/31/1978 (2015-0002/RR48), 9/5/1978 (2015-0002/RR49), 9/4/1979 (2015-0002/RR50), 9/18/1979 (2015-0002/RR51), 9/2/1980 (2015-0002/RR52), 2/23/1982 (2015-0002/RR68), 9/7/1982 (2015-0002/RR69), 11/15/1983 (2015-0002/RR70), 3/27/1984 (2015-0002/RR71), 9/30/1986 (2015-0002/RR72), and lastly 9/8/1987 (2015-0002/RR73).