Conference Program

Click on underlined titles to view abstracts. All photos by Andrew Leach.

Thursday, February 14
1:00–3:30 p.m. Session 1
Reassessing the Black Music Diaspora: What Is It, Why Is It Important, and How Should It Be Understood?
Ingrid Monson (Harvard University), moderator

Daniel Avorgbedor (Ohio State University), The Black Music Diaspora: Developing a Framework for Theory and Method

Samuel A. Floyd Jr., (Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, CBMR), Of Music, Sailing Ships, and Diasporal Ports of Call

Peter Wade (University of Manchester, Manchester, England), African Diaspora and Colombian Popular Music in the Twentieth Century

3:45–5:15 p.m. Session 2
Implications of the Mission of the MayDay Group for Facing the Nexus between Research and Teaching in Higher Education
Teresa Reed (University of Tulsa), moderator

Rosita M. Sands (Columbia College Chicago), The Potential of Black Music Research for Informing Instructional Content and Curricula Design

Robert Tanner (Morehouse College), Beyond Inclusion: New Paradigms for the Teaching of Black Music

Christopher Wilkinson (West Virginia University), An American Pedagogical Dilemma: Black Music Research vs. Conventional Instruction in Music History

8:00 p.m. Performance
Sones de México Ensemble Chicago (ticketed event)

Friday, February 15
8:30–10:00 a.m. Session 3
Music Performance: Ensembles, Selected Repertoire, Research Materials, and Methodology
Horace Maxile (Center for Black Music Research), moderator

Mark Clague (University of Michigan), Diversity as Inspiration: Creativity and the Repertory of Music Education

Morris A. Phibbs (Center for Black Music Research), Ministering to the Musically Myopic through Creative Programming and Ensemble Design

John Gordon Ross (Western Piedmont Symphony, Hickory, NC), Music for All Seasons: Building Inclusive Concert Programs

10:15–11:45 a.m. Session 4
Music in the Black Diaspora of the Northern United States: Theory and Practice
Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. (University of Pennsylvania), moderator

Jayna Jennifer Brown (University of California, Riverside), "Ancestry in Progress": Cyberspace, Transdiaspora, and Global Pop Music

David Stowe (Michigan State University), Toward Defining a Northern U.S. Black Diaspora through Formal Elements of the Music

Gayle Wald (The George Washington University), Up North: Placing Gospel Music

1:15–2:45 p.m. Session 5
From Talking Drums and “Heebie Jeebies” to Rap and the Art Song: Phonological and Poetic Aspects of Black Music
Johann S. Buis (Wheaton College, Illinois), moderator

Kenneth Bilby (Center for Black Music Research), Saying It by Playing It, Playing It by Saying It: Paralinguistic Parallels in African Diasporic Music

Salikoko S. Mufwene (University of Chicago), Emergence or Creation? Rethinking the Formation of Afro-American Vernaculars and Musics

Elaine Richardson (The Ohio State University), The Selecta as Agent of Diaspora Literacy

3:00–5:00 p.m. Session 6
The Spoken Word in Black Music Cultures: From Griots to MCs
A Multi-Media lecture-performance
Stephanie Shonekan (Columbia College Chicago), host and lecturer

Mr. Greenweedz, hip hop artist
C. Sharp, comedian
LaTonea Miller, poet
De'Mar Singleton, krump dancer

6:30–7:30 p.m. Reception—complimentary for all conference registrants

7:30–9:30 p.m. Keynote Banquet (ticketed event)
William F. Ferris, keynote speaker

Saturday, February 16
9:00–10:30 a.m. Session 7
Music in the Black Diaspora of the Southern United States: Theory and Practice
Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (University of California, Los Angeles), moderator

David Evans (University of Memphis), The Limitations of Diaspora: The Case of African-American Music in the Southern United States

Portia Maultsby (Indiana University), Stax Records and the “Memphis Sound”: Exploring the Concept of Black Diaspora in Popular Music

John Szwed (Yale University), The Origins of Jazz

10:45am–12:00 p.m. Session 8
Music in the Black Diaspora of the Mediterranean
RoseAnna Mueller (Columbia College Chicago), moderator

Gianfranco Salvatore (Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy)

Stefano Zenni (Socíeta Italíana di Musícología Afroamerícana, Prato, Italy), Black Music Elements in Renaissance and Early Baroque Music: A Preliminary Overview

1:45–3:15 p.m. Session 9
Facing Race: Bridging the Racial Divide
Stephanie Shonekan (Columbia College Chicago), moderator

Denis-Constant Martin (Centre d'études et de recherches internationals, Paris), Can Jazz be Rid of the Racial Imagination? Creolization, Racial Discourses, and Semiology of Music

Ronald Radano (University of Wisconsin, Madison), On Ownership and Value

Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. (University of Pennsylvania), Can the Object Speak?

3:30–5:00 p.m. Session 10
Black Music in the Circum-Caribbean Diaspora: Theory and Practice
Ernest D. Brown Jr. (Williams College), moderator

Gage Averill (University of Toronto) Tracing Africa: Social Memory and Performance in Haiti

Alejandro L. Madrid (University of Illinois at Chicago) Dissecting the 2007 Habana Danzón Festival. The Transnational Meaning of Cuba's National Dance

Michael Veal (Yale University) Dub Music of Jamaica: The Acoustics of Diaspora and the Post-Colony

T. M. Scruggs (University of Iowa) "Caracas is a Caribbean City"—But What Kind of Caribbean?: The Musical Reevaluation of Social Place in Contemporary Venezuela

7:30 p.m. Performance (ticketed event)
Sweet Thunder: The Billy Strayhorn Story
A musical revue
Bobbi Wilsyn, vocalist
Maggie Brown, vocalist
Andrew Schultze, vocalist
Martez Rucker, vocalist
Members of the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble

Sunday, February 17
8:30–10:00 a.m. Session 11
The CBMR’s Expanded Mission to Include “The Americas”
Dominique Cyrille (Lehman College–CUNY), moderator

Ernest Brown (Williams College), paper to be announced

Barbara Browning (Tisch School of the Arts, New York University), "O Herói": The Ambivalent Heroism of the Circulation of Black Musics in the Americas

Thomas Riis (University of Colorado, Boulder), The CBMR’s Expanded Mission, Crossing Boundaries, Enlarging Perspectives

10:15–11:45 a.m. Session 12
New Orleans Collections—The Lost and Saved: Implications for Future Research and Scholarship
Howard Reich (Chicago Tribune), moderator

Connie Atkinson (University of New Orleans), "Brother John is Gone": The Lost Musical Artifacts of New Orleans

Florence Borders (Amistad Research Center, Tulane University), The Past as Prologue: The Future as Challenge

Michael White (Xavier University, New Orleans), A Personal Reflection on Hurricane Katrina Losses and Their Cultural Implications

12:30 p.m. Gospel Brunch, Chicago House of Blues