Lecture
Professor David Peimer
Saturday 24.01.2026
Professor David Peimer
Golden Jazz Age: ‘Sweetest Music this Side of Heaven!’
Saturday 24.01.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 24 January at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
The 1920’s Jazz Age mirrored a world of women’s suffrage, prohibition, speakeasies, gangsters like Al Capone, the Roaring Twenties, and the 1929 Great Crash. With roots in African American blues and ragtime, it captured the dream of different cultures and races living side by side. Join us for an exhilarating journey through the music of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and even James Baldwin and Gershwin.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published numerous books, including Armed Response: Plays from South Africa and the digital book Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.