Reaching the Ears of the Nation: Frederick Douglass’ Narratives and the African American Musical Traditions

MONDAY Nov 7th at 5:30 pm 

A Free Webinar in partnership with CUNY
Reaching the Ears of the Nation: Frederick Douglass’ Narratives and the African American Musical Traditions

In connection with our reading of Ken Green's new work 'July 5th,' live on November 17th at Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, this virtual seminar investigated the repercussions and influence of Frederick Douglass's narratives of freedom and personhood and their inspirational role in sustaining African American discourses in culture and the arts, with emphasis on the development of an African American classical music tradition and the cultural role of hip hop and rap music in modern American society.

Panelists: Jason Lee Oakes, ethnomusicologist, and James Melo, ERC musicologist.

Seminar Series

With each concert production ERC hosts a seminar. This series of seminars at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), in partnership with the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, fulfills one of the founding principles of ERC: merging performance and musicological research to enrich the musical experience of the listener through a variety of interdisciplinary discussions. Each seminar centers on a discussion of music in relation to an extra-musical context (literature, philosophy, visual arts, cinema, and others) that is pertinent to the parallel ERC theatrical concert. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines are invited to participate in the seminars, offering the audience an opportunity to engage in intriguing, illuminating, and aesthetically revealing perspectives about the subject matter.  Seminars are free to the public and are held one to two weeks before concerts.