Events

The Berklee Africana Studies Department hosts Dr. Fredara Mareva Hadley, an ethnomusicology professor in the Music History Department at the Juilliard School. She teaches courses on African American music and the field of ethnomusicology (the study of music in its social and cultural contexts). Hadley will discuss her forthcoming book I'll Make Me a World, which centers on the musical contributions of historically Black colleges and universities and their impact on Black music and beyond. She is an alumna of two historically Black colleges: Florida A&M University and Clark Atlanta University. Hadley completed her PhD in ethnomusicology at Indiana University.

The Berklee College of Music Africana Studies Department presents a lecture on the Gnawa with Professor Leo Blanco and visiting scholar Dr. Chouki El Hamel. 

This performance celebrates the arts and the creatives who represent traditional music, sounds of healing, joy, and power. These rhythms and melodies illuminate the lived experiences and stories of historical and contemporary women and people living throughout Africa, the US, and the African diaspora.

Dr. Karen Walwyn(Opens in a new window) will speak on composer Florence Price, the first female African American classical composer to gain national recognition. Price's music was lost for over 30 years and was rediscovered in her abandoned home in 2009. Walwyn was the first to premiere the Concerto in One Movement for Piano with Orchestra and is a sought-after interpreter and scholar for lectures and recitals on Price across the country. There will be a Q&A after the lecture.