217 Today: How jazz music helped bring unity to a South African university

Tiktok Instagram Facebook-f
Darius and Catherine Brubeck helped bring a jazz education program to South Africa in the 1980s.
  • Photo: Omar Badsha

Monday, April 21, 2025

Today’s headlines:

  • A single-engine plane crash in Coles County has killed two women and two men from Wisconsin.
  • University of Illinois students gathered in Urbana on Friday to support the right to protest.
  • Some central Illinois schools have taken steps to ban phone use in school, even as the state considers wider restrictions.
  • A recent study from Northwestern University found that incarceration has long-lasting effects on young people as they grow into adults.
  • The Fighting Illini softball team lost all three games in its Easter weekend series against Purdue.

In today’s deep dive, we’ll listen to a conversation with Darius and Catherine Brubeck about their book, which follows the path to establishing a jazz education program in apartheid-era South Africa.

217 Today is produced by Stephanie Mosqueda. Reporting today contributed by Reginald Hardwick, Emily Hays, Braden Fogerson, Mawa Iqbal, Jim Meadows and Kimberly Schofield.

WILL and the Illinois Newsroom are committed to bringing you in-depth, relevant coverage that keeps you informed and engages you with our community and state. Join with thousands of others to keep this important public media-based resource available to all. Donate today >>

Stephanie Mosqueda

Stephanie Mosqueda is a senior majoring in journalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with minors in Spanish and public relations. She is the 217 Today producer and a reporter for the Illinois Student Newsroom.