By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The National Black Arts Festival will honor the late Atlantan Curtis Mayfield with a Legends Celebration concert featuring the Impressions, Eddie Levert, Van Hunt, Frank McComb, Dionne Farris and Joi Gilliam at Symphony Hall on July 16.

But first, the social commentary of Mayfield’s music will be the topic of a panel discussion Thursday night at the Carter Center. Howard Dodson, chief of New York’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Indiana University ethnomusicologist Portia K. Maultsby will discuss “Curtis Mayfield: The Man, the Music, the Movement.”

Refreshments and self-guided museum tours start at 5:30 p.m. Panel discussion, 6:45-8:30 p.m. Free. 404-224-3464, www.nbaf.org.