The University of Iowa’s Hancher will present Taylor Mac's 1846–1856 Whitman vs. Foster: Songs Popular Near the Breaking Point at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 5, at the E.C. Mabie Theatre in the UI Theatre Building. The performance is drawn from Mac’s larger work, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.

Mac is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director, and producer who defies easy characterization. For nearly two decades, Mac has created award-winning performance events that at once provoke and embrace his diverse audience.

A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is his most ambitious project to date—a subjective history of the past 240 years since America’s founding, told through the music of the times that will eventually be performed over a 24-hour period. His look at 1846-1856, Whitman vs. Foster, is a showdown between Walt Whitman, the Bard of Democracy, and Stephen Foster, the father of American music.

In addition to the performance, Mac will participate in a conversation facilitated by Jennifer Buckley, of the Obermann Center, on Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. at the FilmScene in downtown Iowa City. This event will be free and open to the public.

Mac will also interact with students in a number of UI classes during his residency.

Tickets are available from the Hancher Box Office and are $30 for nonstudents, $27 for senior citizens, and $10 for college students and youth. Located on the first floor of the south end of the Old Capitol Town Center near the parking ramp, the Hancher Box Office is open for phone (319-335-1160 or 800-HANCHER) or walk-up business from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. Tickets may also be ordered online at hancher.uiowa.edu. Any remaining tickets will be available for sale one hour before show time at the UI Theatre Building.

The performance is a Hancher co-commission, and it is part of the Just Living theme semester at the University of Iowa.

In addition to Hancher, A 24-Decade History of Popular Music is commissioned in part by Carole Shorenstein Hays, of the Curran Theater; Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the New Haven Festival of Arts & Ideas; New York Live Arts; OZ Arts Nashville; and the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan. This work was developed with the support of the Park Avenue Armory residency program and the 2015 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Sundance Resort. A 24-Decade History of Popular Music was made possible with funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Project, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Hancher performance by Taylor Mac is supported by the Hancher Partners and Gifts to the Hancher Circle through the University of Iowa Foundation.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Hancher Box office in advance at 319-335-1158.