The Black Sonic

The Black Sonic does not entail thinking about the history of music from Africa and the African diaspora. Instead, is entails studying the history of this music as thinking, as conceptual, as social experiment, and as the practice of ensemble and collectivity. In the seminar we will listen to reggae, calypso, zouk, juju, hi life, afro-beat, reggaeton, jazz, blues and more. We will read African diasporic writers on music including Ralph Ellison, Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, and Nadia Ellis. We will invite guests to play music for us and discuss the thought, composition, and context of this music. We will also play music for each other. The Black Sonic will be a mode of studying the insurgent sound of liberation.