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WHEREAS, Jerome C. “Jero” White, Jr., was born in Pittsburgh on September 4, 1981, and is a 1999 graduate of Perry Traditional Academy, and a 2003 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh's Information Sciences program; and
WHEREAS, Mr. White listened eagerly and intently to the collection of Japanese records his maternal grandmother brought with her when she moved to this country from her native Japan, apparently falling in love with the music; and
WHEREAS, Mr. White began at the age of six to learn to sing the enka music embodied on those records, a form often simply termed the “Japanese blues” - mournful songs telling of lost or unrequited love; and
WHEREAS, Mr. White went on to study Japanese at Perry High School, and visited Japan for a speech contest at the age of 15, ultimately becoming a fluent speaker of the language and also quite a singer; and
WHEREAS, Mr. White, now known simply as “Jero,” has become the latest Japanese singing sensation, taking an art form which descends from political rhetoric of the 1800s and was originally popularly sung and recorded after World War II, and updating it to a new fusion of rap and hip-hop appearance and carriage with the traditional enka poetry and mournfulness; and
WHEREAS, Jero released his first single, “Umiyuki,” (“Ocean Snow”) in February 2008, making him the first African-American enka singer in Japanese music history; and
WHEREAS, Jero will perform a free hour-long concert at the University of Pittsburgh on August 27, 2008, at 8:30 p.m., in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room, 3959 Fifth Avenue, in Oakland, sponsored by Pitt's Asian Studies Center in the University Center for International Studies in conjunction with the Pitt Program Council, the Department of Africana Studies, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation/Mitsubishi Endowments at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania;
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City o...
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