Course Details

With cultural convening practices centered around participatory music, community radio, and collective media-making, this class connects students to creative practice as social justice. These convening practices offer solace and inspiration in times of crisis and break barriers to create solidarity across cultures. Guest speakers include Quetzal Flores and MacArthur Genius Awardee UW alumnae Martha Gonzalez sharing workshops animating resilience through community arts and music within the fandango music movement as well as other music traditions like the Japanese American Taiko drum and Obon. Other guest speakers and site visits include the Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities Oral History Archive; DE CAJóN (whose focus is cultural and music contributions by people of African descent in Peru); Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle-MÁS (with a focus on global Afrolatino music and culture) and local hip hop organizations. Additionally, discussions will examine how community music traditions from Spain’s Andalusian Gitano communities dialogue with traditions from the Americas as practiced in Seattle. Students will participate in the UW Sound Collabortory’s “Party in the Archive” featuring ethnomusicologist librarian John Vallier in conjunction with Yale Professor Daphne Brooks’s Spring Distinguished Katz lecture on her new book, Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound. Readings include Traditional Arts as Restorative Justice and Traditional Arts as Healing From Trauma: A Workbook for Building Wellness. Other possible events include UW First Nations Pow Wow, Seattle’s Union Cultural Center (as they arise), and The Northwest Folklife Festival.