HOMETOWN: A Champaign native, Banks earned a bachelor’s degree in applied trumpet and a master’s in music education at the UI.
JOB: Director of the African American Cultural Program. He has been involved with the program since its inception 30 years ago, first as a student playing in its band, as a graduate program assistant, as its assistant director and then as the director since 1997.
What do you do on your job?
I’m in charge of programming events that target black students and the black cultural experience. I also plan programs and activities to enhance individual and group leadership development.
What have been your previous jobs?
I was the principal at Judah Christian School in Champaign from 1985-90. It’s a private school with students from kindergarten through 12th grade. I also served as director of Upward Bound and later was the coordinator of career activities at the UI Office of Minority Student affairs.
What do you like about your job?
I like the challenge of working with very bright young people and being able to see in some immediate sense the results of working with them. For example, I help groups work together to plan and schedule events for Black History Month. I also help develop and run a student radio station, WBML, and host a college radio conference. I also help students plan a conference designed to hone their individual and collective leadership skills.
What is difficult about your job?
The difficult part of my job is to do all the things I want to do with the limited financial resources we have.
What is your vision for the cultural program for the next five or 10 years?
I would like to see our office housed in a new facility, and serving in an expanded role as a center for the study of African-American life and culture. It would include scholarly activities based on the culture of African Americans. It would be a conduit for information between black alumni and the university. It would include African-American art and artifacts as well as a satellite site of the University Library’s Africana collection.
What do you like to do away from work?
I like to work with community organizations that are interested in the educational achievement of young children in the community. For instance, I am currently involved in a task force studying the possibility of starting a charter school for at-risk elementary-aged children. This group was an offshoot of one of the pilot Study Circles groups out of the City of Champaign Human Relations Office.
What do you do in music these days?
I play trumpet in two bands. Maruwa is a contemporary jazz band that plays at Zorba’s, The Canopy Club and at university functions. The second is a Latin Jazz group, Mia vana, that plays jazz with an Afro-Cuban flavor.
What’s one of the highlights of your music career?
I sat in with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra when I visited New York City. They were playing at the Village Vanguard. My mentor, Cecil Bridgewater, was a member of the orchestra at that time. He had another job that night, so he got me the gig playing his book.
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