TALK: "Agencies of Menace": The State, the Car, and the Music in Between, Shana Redmond (Columbia University)

Event Date: 

Thursday, May 18, 2023 - 6:00pm

Event Location: 

  • MCC Theater

In this work-in-progress, Redmond listens in conspiracy with Black drivers and passengers in the moments before fatal traffic stops in order to mark the histories and scale of state violence in the U.S. and the ways in which Black living eludes and exceeds contemporary political and musical study. This interdisciplinary talk combines artistry with scholarship and delivers scholarship as artistry in its use of music to explore Black life and state violence.

Following this provocative engagement with history, sound, and experience, there will be an opportunity to participate in a creative response workshop and sharing.

Shana L. Redmond (she|her) is a writer and scholar of Black life and culture. She is the author of Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora (NYU Press, 2014) and Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson (Duke UP, 2020), which received a number of prizes including a 2021 American Book Award. She regularly writes for public outlets including NPR and the BBC, as well as having authored liner notes for the vinyl soundtrack release of Jordan Peele's film Us (Waxwork Records, 2019) and String Quartets, Nos. 1-12 (TUM Records, 2022) by musician-composer-creative Wadada Leo Smith. Her current book project is titled, Dark Prelude: Black Life Before Mourning. She is Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University and President of the American Studies Association (2022-2023).
 

Organized by the Department of Black Studies. Co-sponsored by the Center for Black Studies Research, The Hemispheric South/s Research Initiative, The Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, The MultiCultural Center, The Equal Opportunity Program.

May 4, 2023 - 12:03am