Description:

“The Power of Black Music” lecture by Dr. Alisha Lola Jones, Assistant Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, is Thursday, April 15 from 5-6:30 pm (CST). 

Inspired by Samuel A. Floyd, Jr.’s 1995 book, THE POWER OF BLACK MUSIC is a performance lecture that takes us on a journey to explore postcolonial non-religious music that forms the aesthetics that we observe in popular culture today. From the transatlantic slave trade to the present, debates have raged among scholars and practitioners concerning the lines of demarcation between sacred and secular forms of African American music. Utilizing an ethnomusicological perspective, which foregrounds the significance of culture in the formation and expression of musical values, this performance lecture will explore those inter-and intra-cultural dynamics that define the sacred/secular continuum in African American music.

The lecture will feature performances from Angela M. Jones, Patrick M. Dailey, and W. Crimm Singers. The program will also include words from NCE alumni L. Stanley Davis, WCAS’74 Comm’97 and Adrienne McGowan, SPS’02, and current ensemble member, Diego Pinto, a graduate student in Music. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Religious Studies.