ALBANY — A three-week Festival of American Popular Culture will be held at Linn-Benton Community College from April 4 through April 25. The festival includes live musical performances featuring Oregon artists, art exhibits, cultural presentations and a movie series.

The festival kicks off from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 4, with an old-time music performance and square dances with the Foghorn Stringband in Takena Hall. Caller Bill Martin leads easy square dancing routines to the sounds of the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, bass and guitar.

The music continues with the Ty Curtis blues band from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16. Hailing from Salem, the band made its debut at the 2007 Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland.

The local folk trio MC2 will perform at noon Friday, April 18. Musicians Mark Weiss and Cliff and Chere Pereira incorporate classic American folk tunes into their three-part vocal harmonies and flat-pick guitar.

Blues singer Linda Hornbuckle rounds out the lineup with a performance from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 25. Her music has been described as a soul-tinged hybrid of gospel and funk.

There will be several presentations on American Popular Culture, including “A History of Jazz Piano” with Gary Ruppert, LBCC dean of Arts and Communications and author of the Oregon Music Teachers’ Association Jazz Syllabus, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, April 7.

LBCC poets will perform “On The Road With the LBCC Poetry Club: What’s Pop About Poetry?” from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8. The poets will perform in a range of popular styles from spoken word to rap to slam.

Gary Westfjord, LBCC art and art history instructor, will present “When Six was Nine: Rock Posters from San Francisco 1966-71,” from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. Westfjord examines the socio-political era of the 1960s as it relates to the development of the psychedelic music and art movement in San Francisco.

Peter Carlin, feature writer for the Oregonian, will present Television and the Nation’s Collective Subconscious from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 23.

Art exhibits at the festival include Westfjord’s collection on display in the newly renovated LBCC Library from March 31 to April 30. An exhibit on the history of The Cottonwoods Ballroom will be on display March 31 through April 30 in the South Santiam Hall Gallery.

The Cottonwoods Ballroom was a dance and music hall located on Highway 20 between Albany and Lebanon from 1930-1961. Performers included Louie Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash and Duane Eddy. The exhibit will feature concert posters and photographs from the collection of Jim Creighton. A reception is planned from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 9.

The festival will also host movies including “Bringing Up Baby” at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10; “My Darling Clementine” at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 15; and “Good Night and Good Luck” at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24.

All events are free of charge and will be held in the LBCC Russell Tripp Performance Center, Takena Hall, 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W., unless otherwise noted. For more information, call 917-4531 or see www.linnbenton.

edu/go/festival.