By: Alex Crowley, Adjunct Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

In February 2025, the self-proclaimed “America’s oldest college DJ” passed away and left behind his vast trove of records. However, few outside the world of New York metro area Classical radio listeners or networks of Bach scholars might have received the news of his death. Being a member of neither, it was not until late September 2025, when I received a call from a lawyer handling the estate of Teri Noel Towe, that I learned of the man and the unbelievable collection that he had amassed during his life.

Jeri Hollinger, the lawyer and former colleague of Towe, informed me that Towe had listed the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM) as the first-choice destination for his extensive “gramophonic” collection upon his death. Hollinger passed along the relevant sections of Towe’s will and said that discussions had been held around 2011 with the ACSM while Towe was still alive to negotiate a gift deal, but nothing ever came of those talks. Neither of us could determine what connection, if any, that Towe may have had to �춹��Ƶ (he was a Princeton and U. of Virginia alum), but regardless we agreed that if he had wanted QC to have his collection then we’d do our best.^*

Over his decades as a DJ and amateur musicologist—which is not to denigrate his knowledge, but rather point out that he practiced law professionally—Towe collected “thousands of records,” in Hollinger’s words, which largely focused on J.S. Bach, W.F. Händel, and other figures of Baroque music, as well as organ compositions. Unfortunately, there was no inventory list and Hollinger mentioned that Towe “was a bit of a hoarder,” so the collection would need to be visited in person. A trip to meet Hollinger at the Towe house in rural Amenia, NY, was scheduled for late October 2025 so that I could survey the collection.

Even having been warned beforehand, the state of the modest hillside house surprised me. The only aspect of the place that seemed to be in any order was the record collection, which largely occupied a sunlit addition to the house. Boxes upon boxes of 78s were stacked in a large recessed area, while boxes of LPs filled most of the walkable areas between several rough-built wooden shelf units. I had not allotted nearly enough time to assess what was present, so I scanned the more accessible sets of shelving and filled two large boxes with the LPs that immediately caught my attention. I then made tentative plans for a follow-up visit where I could spend more time among the shelves and boxes to make further selections.

Before my second visit I conducted some more cursory research on Towe and his life’s work. By one estimate the full Towe collection contains up to 15,000 records, including hundreds, if not thousands, of 78s (which the QC Music Library does not have the ability to play and cannot accept for gift/donation). It is thought that he maintained the world’s most complete collection of Bach’s recordings. Unfortunately, a thorough examination of all the Towe holdings would have taken weeks, at minimum, and it was not possible to take more than a fraction of Towe’s LPs back to the Music Library. Given these circumstances, I focused on LPs that appeared to be in [superficially] good condition, featured noteworthy performers, or displayed other characteristics that marked them as having potential interest to library users. I loaded several more bins of LPs into my hatchback and returned to Queens.

Back at the Music Library, I spent some time looking through the boxes and sorting accessionable items from those better suited to our biannual book sale (we sell donated books, scores, LPs, and CDs that we can’t add to the collection to raise extra library funds). I developed a processing plan by which the staff—Anna Sokol, Amerigo Cleffi, Daniel Stimpfle, and Myra Campolo—would help me with item identification, inventory, and accession into our collection. Over the last six months or so we have slowly made our way through the items that I retrieved from the Amenia house. Accession of most items was reasonably straightforward, as matching bib records could be found in OCLC. However, approximately 5% of the items lacked a relevant bib record, which gave me the opportunity to put into action what I learned from the ALA’s Fundamentals of Music Cataloging e-course I took earlier this year and create some new records from scratch. In addition to giving the three members of the staff who are graduate students in �춹��Ƶ’s School of Information Studies (QCSIS) valuable experience in collection processing, they also got to see some concrete examples of cataloging in action.

Towe Archive of Classical Music Collection

With the processing of the Kenneth C. & Betty M. Towe Archive of Classical Music now complete, the staff and I are creating a few exhibit displays to showcase the new acquisitions and hopefully draw in more patrons to engage with our LP collection. One exhibit will feature some rare items of which QC may have the only institutionally held copies. In addition to significant recordings of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven works, the collection features many pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Ravel, Schubert, and Stravinsky. There are also a number of historical performances by Pablo Casals and Wanda Landowska, some rare Japanese and European import pressings, and a couple handfuls of jazz albums. As of this writing, the status of several thousand LPs and 78s from Teri Towe’s collection remains in limbo. While the estate executors aim to keep the rest of the materials together, the likelihood of a single institution being able to do so seems low. If the opportunity arose to acquire an additional portion of the collection, I would take it and I have left myself some space here to do so. In the meantime we have nearly 300 new albums available to our users for listening pleasure, liner note research, or whatever else they may think up.

Additional information about Teri Noel Towe:

 

* 9/8/26 Update: Thanks to some sleuthing by Nick Normal, Head of the Makerspace, we now know that Teri Towe had been friends with �춹��Ƶ professor emeritus of music Joseph Machlis (1906-1998) and in March 2001 gave a lecture at QC on the Weydenhammer Portrait Fragment of J.S. Bach. Some info on this lecture is available on the archived copy of Towe’s old .

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By: Alex Crowley, Adjunct Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

In September 2025, Harriet Hellman contacted the Music Library to inquire about donating old sheet music that had been passed down through the family of her late husband, Samuel. In Harriet’s telling he had wanted to send it to �춹��Ƶ because he had apparently read a story a decade or so ago in the New York Times about donating to the QC library (Note: I cannot find evidence of such an article). Normally the Music Library doesn’t accept sheet music donations, but Harriet was sure that these materials might be of historical interest, as the pieces were all about a century old and still in decent shape for research. In October, I scheduled a trip out to Southampton to view the materials at Harriet’s community medical practice, though did not get to meet her, as she was had to go upstate at the time. I assessed the materials and, though a small portion was in irreparably poor shape, ended up taking the vast majority of the items back to the Music Library.

Items from the Hellman Collection

When I was finally able to inventory the items and take a longer look at what we had acquired, it became clear that Harriet was right. The pieces covered a span from the 1890s through the 1940s, with many published just before WWI. These were largely piano and vocal tunes that, though relatively obscure today, were popular when the sheets were published: late-period ragtime and cakewalk, Tin Pan Alley hits, vaudeville numbers, and patriotic war jingles. While cataloging and accessioning these items, I found that for some of these items we may be the only institution that holds a cataloged copy of a particular score edition. Often the same piano/vocal score would be published with alternate covers featuring different performers known for renditions of the respective tune, as well as advertisements for other songs in the publishers’ respective catalogs.

Something I must note is that this collection contains a significant amount of racist material, including photos, cartoons, and song lyrics. American popular culture is replete with racism, among other forms of offense and structural oppression, and it would be ahistorical to obscure this aspect of the collection or to have rejected the materials because of what they contain and how that may reflect back on us now. For example, pre-jazz forms developed and nurtured by Black artists, such as the rag, were turned on their head in the hands of white songwriters churning out content for an expanding white audience. Paradoxically, then, this collection may be of interest both for how it reflects popular musical tastes of the time, as well as how these songs were presented and disseminated to the purchasing public in the era before sound recordings became widespread consumer commodities. Eventually, we would like to digitize this collection to make it more accessible and preserve the more fragile items within it. For now, the Hellman Sheet Music is housed in the Music Library’s Rare Materials Collection and anyone interested in exploring should contact us: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu

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Music Library Book Sale: March 25, 2026

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By: Alex Crowley, Adjunct Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

The QC Music Library would like to announce the return of the BOOK SALE to the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM). Items for sale will include Books, Scores, LPs, and CDs. The sale is CASH ONLY.

• Location: ACSM Atrium
• Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026
• Time: 10am – 4pm

 

Please contact the Music Library if you have any questions about the event: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu.

See you then!��

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Music Library Book Sale: October 22, 2025

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By: Alex Crowley, Substitute Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

The QC Music Library would like to announce the return of the BOOK SALE to the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM). Items for sale will include Books, Scores, CDs, and more. The sale is CASH ONLY.

 

• Location: ACSM Atrium
• Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
• Time: 10am – 4pm

 

Please contact the Music Library if you have any questions about the event: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu.

See you then!��

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Music Library & First Year Experience Reprise Turntable Program

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By: Alex������Ƿɱ����,��Substitute Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

In September of 2024, QC’s First Year Experience (FYE) program collaborated with the Music Library to host a listening party that showcased the Music Library’s extensive collection of vinyl records. The event with FYE marked the end of the first phase of an inventory and rehabilitation process that Music Librarian Alex Crowley had begun earlier that year, which also included the creation of an browsable table that facilitates easier engagement with the Music Library’s vinyl holdings. A workshop on turntable use followed in the Spring of 2025 as part of the Library’s Byte-Sized Workshop Series open to all members of the QC community.��

One of the Music Library’s Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntables and some albums picked by event participants

The success of these two campus events, and a heightened level of interest in vinyl records more broadly, led to a reprise of the FYE for the new academic year. On Wednesday September 15, students in the FYE program visited the Music Library after hours to gain a basic familiarity with the components of a turntable and learn how to use the three Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntables in the Music Library’s media center. Attendees were then invited to dig through a couple crates of representative selections from the library’s record collection, picking out Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5 in F maj Op. 76 (Istvan Kertesz, London Symphony Orchestra), Two Centuries of Bengali Songs, and Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil, among others. Each turntable station features a headphone pre-amp with four jacks, so small groups can listen together simultaneously.��

As the event concluded, attendees retreated back upstairs for pizza where they were welcomed by the QC Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Dr. James John, practicing the final movement of composer Melissa Dunphy’s “American DREAMers: United We Dream” (2018) in the atrium of the Aaron Copland School of Music. And though the Music Library plans to host another turntable workshop in the Spring 2026 semester, that doesn’t mean you have to wait to listen to something from the record collection. All the info you need is on the Music Library Vinyl Collection Page. The Music Library staff is ready to assist. ��

The Music Library is located in the Aaron Copland School of Music and is open Mon-Fri, 10am-4:45pm.

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Music Library Book Sale: October 30, 2024

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By: Alex Crowley, Substitute Visual & Performing Arts, Music Librarian

The QC Music Library would like to announce the return of the BOOK SALE to the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM). Items for sale will include Books, Scores, CDs, and more. The sale is CASH ONLY.

 

• Location: ACSM Atrium
• Date: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
• Time: 10am – 4pm

 

Please contact the Music Library if you have any questions about the event: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu.

See you then!��

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Music Library & First Year Experience Program Host Vinyl LP Listening Party

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By: Alex Crowley, Substitute Visual & Performing Arts-Music Librarian

On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, the Music Library re-opened after hours (5-7pm) to host students from the First Year Experience (FYE) program for a Vinyl LP Listening Party. More than a dozen students, accompanied by FYE staffers Jorge Ivan Velez, Saarah Ahsan, and Elisheva Conway, joined me for an introduction to the Music Library and a basic turntable tutorial session that included some “crate digging” through selections taken from the Music Library’s vinyl record collection.

Vinyl LP Listening Party

Vinyl LP Listening Party

I have been conducting an inventory and reorganizing the long-neglected record collection since early Spring, so hosting this event with FYE was a great opportunity to introduce students to both the music collection and the analog music-listening experience.

The Music Library’s pair of Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntables each have external adapters for four sets of headphones, making it possible for multiple people to simultaneously listen to the same record. Attending students picked a few albums to check out and listen to in small groups. They had questions about the various technical functions (pitch adjustment, arm weight, skate control) on the turntable device and remarked upon the “crackling” noise of the records—more noticeable on some albums than others.

Technics SL-1200 MK2

Engaging with the LPs is a reminder that for decades these records were the only game in town, so the library would have held multiple copies of many of these albums. One student who selected a Billie Holliday album noted that Holliday’s work is largely absent from streaming services, and it is likely that among the approximately 5,000 LPs in the collection are many others that cannot be found on any streaming service.

LP Selections

Now that the inventory of the collection is complete and the improved finding aid for the LPs, is functional, a future project for the Music Library may lie in taking stock of rare LPs and those that are not available digitally. In the meantime, all QC students are welcome to browse the LP collection and come to the Music Library for a record break.

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Music Library Book Sale: April 3, 2024

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By: Author, Role

The QC Music Library would like to announce the return of the BOOK SALE to the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM). Items for sale will include Books, Scores, CDs, and more. The sale is CASH ONLY.

Location:
ACSM Atrium

Date:
Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Time:
10am – 4pm

Please contact the Music Library if you have any questions about the event: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu.

See you then!��

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�춹��Ƶ Library (QCL) supports student success and faculty development through its resources, services, and spaces in accordance with the college’s educational mission. QCL seeks creative, collaborative, and user-centered librarians to support teaching and learning in the schools of Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, and Math & Natural Sciences. Our librarians will work with Library and College partners to improve services and outreach to students and faculty across academic departments. QCL encourages innovation in librarianship and expects librarians to possess strong interpersonal and creative skills, and the desire to develop new areas of expertise. 

As members of the Library Faculty, these public service positions will combine core librarianship and teaching responsibilities, such as research assistance and library instruction, with subject specialist and technology-based services to students and faculty.  

The Library and College embrace the diversity of the borough of Queens and welcomes such diversity in its students and personnel. QCL promotes a hybrid work schedule for full-timers (80% on-site, 20% remote), and all positions may include evenings and weekends. 

These positions are open until filled – review of applications begins September 18th. 

For details and to apply for a position, see our page or these direct links: 

•  
•  
•  
• : 
  • Adjunct Humanities Librarian 
  • Adjunct Social Sciences Librarian 
  • Adjunct Sciences Librarian 
  • Adjunct Makerspace Librarian 
  • Adjunct Web Librarian 

Questions about the positions or the hiring process can be addressed to james.mellone@qc.cuny.edu.

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Ahead of the World Premiere of at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, the �춹��Ƶ Library is honored to present a discussion on the live music and dance performance with its choreographer and director Edisa Weeks. Weeks, an Associate Professor of Dance at �춹��Ƶ, discusses the power of dance and its relationship to political action, her experience as the first artist in residence in the Kupferberg Arts Incubator, and how the research she performed in the James R. Forman Library Collection at the �춹��Ƶ Library helped shape what became Action Songs/Protest Dances.

The interview was conducted via email between Weeks and the �춹��Ƶ Visual & Performing Arts Librarian, Assistant Professor Scott R. Davis.

Action Songs/Protest Dances is inspired by the life and work of civil rights activist James Forman. While rooted in an historical figure, the production is also firmly about the present and contemporary struggles to address social justice within the United States. What do you believe the medium of dance is uniquely able to contribute toward facilitating such conversations?

As an artivist (artist/activist) dance is my medium of choice for addressing issues in society. Dance serves many functions. It can be a spiritual practice, a source of exercise and catharsis, an economic signifier, as well as a way to affirm a cultural identity and cultivate a sense of belonging. I’m interested in how dance can comment on society. I believe that dance can re-vitalize the everyday to reveal something new about ourselves, and the revelation is a seed, an energy, a spark that has the power to enact change.

One of the joys of dancing is it releases serotonin into the brain, which makes people feel good. Communal singing also releases serotonin. On a more basic level, movement helps develop our brains. For example, research is finding that when infants learn to roll from their stomach onto their back, it helps to develop the pituitary brain, crawling develops the mid brain, and walking develops the frontal brain. Our bodies are hard-wired for movement! Dancing has often been integral to protests. The Toyi-Toyi dance was a part of rallies and gatherings in the movement to end apartheid in South Africa. In America in the 1960’s the twist, the mashed potato, the watusi, which emerged from the Black American community, were picked up by White mainstream culture to become an expression of freedom and rebellion against the conservative, repressive social norms of 1950’s America.

Archival research does not often immediately come to people’s minds when thinking of contemporary dance. How did your research within the Forman Archive at the �춹��Ƶ Library inform your work in this production?

One of my mentors was George Bass who was a playwright, poet, director, and educator. He also was Langston Hughes’s personal secretary. George emphasized a research-to-performance method for creating original devised work. This method for devising work appeals to me as I’m fascinated by history. I enjoy scratching beneath the surface to understand the meaning and reasoning for why something exists. I’m interested in knowing what our deepest, darkest, and sweetest desires are, and in creating a work that interrogates those desires, I can begin to process, understand and possibly transform them.

I was intrigued by one of the boxes in the Forman archives, which is filled with social and political pamphlets, what we would now call zines. Several of the pamphlets featured the bold, psychedelic lettering and colors that were popular in the 1960’s. I immediately knew I wanted the poster for Action Songs/Protest Dances to be a throwback to 1960’s art.

One of the books in the archive “The Making Of Black Revolutionaries” by Forman, a guidebook for anyone interested in the civil rights movement and understanding what is involved in social justice struggles. Forman writes about how the pressure of being on the front lines advocating against oppression and for social change can take a toll emotionally and mentally. Forman had multiple times when he was brutally beaten by the police and members of the White Citizens Council, for being a Black man who did not genuflect, who was advocating for justice, and questioning oppressive systems in America. Forman had several mental breakdowns, yet was able to recover and keep working for social betterment. Hearing about his struggles with mental health really resonated during the pandemic, as the creative team was navigating the isolation and stress of the pandemic; as well as the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others. I hesitate bringing up mental health as it can be perceived as a weakness and used to denigrate and diminish a person’s relevance, however, we need to discuss mental health so we can find pathways for care-taking, healing, and wellness. These discussions resulted in the song Pattern Map by Spirit McIntyre, which is about letting go of toxic isms; and the song Body on the Line by Martha Redbone which discusses how Forman, “often put his body on the line” during the civil rights movement and got beaten and arrested in the effort to register people to vote.

I would describe the process of creating Action Songs/Protest Dances as a Sankofa practice. Sankofa is a symbol and term used by the Akan Tribe in Ghana, West Africa. The literal translation of the word is, “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” In this work, we are going back in history to lift up the work of James Forman and bringing his words and advocacy forward through song and dance.

Did you discover any particular items within the archive that led to unexpected encounters or connections?

An unexpected connection was learning that Forman had worked with human rights activist Ella Baker. They both advocated for empowering the average person to become involved in the governance of their community. They did not believe in charismatic leadership, for if the charismatic leader is removed the work towards social improvement often ends with the leader. If people do not have a say in the laws, land, and resources in their community; they will be controlled by other people who don’t necessarily have their best interests at heart. 

Forman was trained as a journalist and wrote several non-fiction books including: High Tide of Black Resistance; Sammy Younge Jr.: The First Black College Student to Die in the Black Liberation Movement; The Making Of Black Revolutionaries, so it was a pleasant surprise to realize that Forman also did fictional writing and wrote short stories.

In addition to conceiving, directing, and choreographing Action Songs/Protest Dances you also commissioned five original songs for the production. What was the process of collaboration with the contributing composers?

The dancers, composers, and I reside in different cities, New Orleans, Albany, New York City, and we started working on Action Songs/Protest Dances during the pandemic, so being able to connect through zoom, and work online was essential. I worked with student interns Kathreena Bunch and Paolo Cecilia Silva in compiling a dossier about James Forman based on information in the library archives. It included his bio, links to his writings, and quotes by Forman. The dossier was shared with the creative team and it was a springboard for discussions. Several quotes became the lyrical inspiration for the songs.

The process of creating the songs was very collaborative. Each composer was paired with two dancers and we had several meetings where we discussed James Forman, actions that he was involved with, and current social justice issues that we want to draw attention to. What was important for the creative process is to identify what was resonating with the composers and dancers, and especially what the dancers were invested in embodying.

In 1969 Forman wrote “The Black Manifesto”, which is an expression of rebellion rooted in the despair of a people who had given up hope of “integrating” into the mainstream socioeconomic systems and structures in America. It demanded that Protestant and Jewish organizations pay $500 million in reparations for crimes perpetrated against generations of blacks during slavery. Over 40’s years later America still has not come to terms with the legacy of enslavement, and how to pay reparations.

Composer Taina Asili was paired with Brittany Stewart who is a �춹��Ƶ Dance Alumni. For the project, I am integrating three current QC Students, three QC Dance Alumni, and two professional Dancers with my company DELIRIOUS Dances. What resonated with Brittany is issues connected to financial literacy for the Black community as well as issues of wellness and Black Joy. Taina wrote ����貹�����پ��DzԲ�” a joyous song about the need, the demand for reparations.

Another issue that was identified was decriminalizing sex work. We met with members of Sex Workers Outreach Project who explained why they are advocating for decriminalization and not legalization; and with Carol Leigh (aka Scarlot Harlot ) who in 1978 coined the term “sex worker”. We are still working on decrim song, as we need more time to connect with people involved in the advocacy to decriminalize sex work, to clarify who we are writing the song for, is it a song that is a rallying cry for sex workers to be sung and danced at rallies; or is it a song and dance to educate people about why decrim needs to happen. 

Since the creative process for the songs was entirely virtual, I have not met composers Spirit McIntyre and Taina Asili in person. I’m incredibly excited for Thursday, November 10 which is when the composers, singers, musicians, and dancers are physically coming together for the first time!

This production is the result of your involvement in the inaugural Kupferberg Arts Incubator. As an artist residency initiative to support and advance the work of artists of color what was your experience producing Action Songs/Protest Dances within this context?

This question makes me think of how the US Supreme Court currently has several cases that are challenging the need for affirmative action. If education institutions remove affirmative action, then they also need to remove the practice of legacy. I also think of writer Toni Morrison who stated,

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

That being said, the experience of producing Action Songs/Protest Dances has been joyous. A give and take of listening, discussing, and dream-storming with an incredibly talented, smart, and generous gathering of artists. 

I started teaching at �춹��Ƶ in 2010, which is also when the Rosenthal Library acquired James Forman’s personal papers. I was incredibly excited as James Forman was the first person I heard criticize capitalism as an exploitative economic system. I remember feeling shocked, as I grew up playing monopoly and believing that capitalism was good and the “American Way”.  Since 2010 I’ve been wondering how I can lift up James Forman’s voice, work, advocacy and sacrifices during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. Then in 2020, the pandemic happened, followed by the murder of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. I began wondering how as a choreographer I can engage with the protests that were happening across the nation and help address injustices in America. The Kupferberg Center for the Arts Incubator provided the opportunity to create Action Songs/Protest Dances, which celebrate the life and words of James Forman; and through music and dance advocate for America to be a truly great nation.

Action Songs/Protest Dances premieres at the Saturday, November 12^th at 8pm and Sunday, November 13^th at 3pm. Tickets are $20. �춹��Ƶ students receive a 50% discount.

For more information on the performance visit the .

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