This talk explores the Black musical forms and songs of artists that have expressed African American freedom-seeking strategies and related political ideologies. Music has always been a major mode of expression for African Americans, connecting the group to their African homeland and deeply rooting them to American soil. These roots birthed foundational African American traditions like blues, jazz, gospel, and soul that are intertwined with the African American activist tradition. Maya Cunningham will explore the symbiosis between Black American music, long-standing African American freedom-taking strategies and political ideologies that define Black history.

Maya Cunningham is an ethnomusicologist, a jazz vocalist, and a cultural activist. She is currently a lecturer in the Department of Music and Theatre at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is completing a PhD in African American studies and her research focuses on identity and cultural music throughout the African diaspora.