Is opera for white people? What makes music “Black”? If jazz is Black American music, then why is every university jazz department run by white people? What difference can music make in the face of state violence? Does the sound of my voice matter and what do I sound like to others?

In this book club we explore these questions and the history, politics, and liberatory legacies of Black music. Challenging the sonic color line that often defines genre, this event explores the power of music to either reproduce or destabilize violent categories of race, gender, ability, sexuality, and class.

Hosted by Black Garnet Bookstore and led by Minnesota Opera’s Dr. Allison Lewis, together we will engage both fiction, non-fiction, and sound as we ask questions about the role music plays in liberation and how our own musical practices define our own identities.

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