 "Photo: Maddie Crum/ The Daily Texan")
The UT Project on Conflict Resolution honored three Austin men, including the late Clifford Antone, for their work in bringing people of diverse backgrounds together through music and art. The men were honored Thursday night at Antone’s, a famous blues club.
The Bridging Divides Award recognizes public figures who bridge divisions between people, said PCR’s director and founder Madeline Maxwell. Willie Nelson was the inspiration and first recipient of the award in 2007. This year’s winners are Antone, Harold McMillan and Cyril Neville.
The PCR is a group that mediates disputes between students and other members of the UT community, as well as non-members of the University, said Chris Reid, a PCR member and history junior.
The executive board of the PCR receives nominations for the award from the community. Maxwell said there is an extensive vetting process for each nominee.
McMillan, an artist and musician, received the award for his work with the African-American Quality of Life Initiative. The program established East Austin as a Cultural Heritage District.
“The thing I’m most concerned with is preserving and promoting African-American music — jazz, blues and gospel,” McMillan said.
McMillan owns an art gallery on Fifth Street called New East Gallery. Greg Broseus, a photographer whose work has been featured in the gallery, said it promotes diversity within the art community.
“I’m happy and proud and surprised [to win this award],” McMillan said. “My name is on the list with people I otherwise would not have included my name with. I’m in good company.”
Maxwell said Antone was selected to receive the award for his interest in bridging diversity between whites and blacks through music.
Classics and Plan II professor Tom Palaima spoke on Antone’s behalf, who died of a heart attack in 2006.
Palaima said the blues club was the reason he moved to Austin in 1983. Toward the end of Antone’s life, he and Palaima became friends.
Palaima said that he recalls sitting in on the classes Antone taught at UT where he would bring duffle bags of CDs and video tapes of musicians, new and old, to share with the class.
“Sitting in on Cliff’s class was the smartest thing I ever did in my life, and I won a Genius Award,” said Palaima, who was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1985.
Neville was honored for the aid he has provided to Hurricane Katrina victims. Neville, a Katrina survivor himself, created Project Chumbo — from the melding of the words chili and gumbo — to bring people from New Orleans and Austin together through music.
“Neville brought together the haves and the have-nots, blacks and whites and victims and rescuers,” Maxwell said.
Three Austin bands performed to honor the award recipients.
“This is what [Antone] gave to the city of Austin,” Palaima said, raising his arms to encompass the whole club. “The rich tradition of blues.”
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