Study States #4 – Music and Activism

Discussion

For this session, we look at the three quintessentially American gneres in which protest, activism, and social change inhere: Blues, Jazz, and Folk. We look at how these popular forms became vital vehicles for social and civil change across the 20th century.

Yusef Komunyakaa’s article on Langston Hughes considers how the African American blues-poet became a vital symbol of change in the C20. A key figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes’ invocation of religion, social unrest, and the blues all cohered into a distinct poetics of protest.

Christine Gosnay’s moving poem ‘Listening to Townes Van Zandt’ eulogises one of America’s most storied and troubled outlaw folk artists.

Ruth Feldstein’s article on Nina Simone and black activism considers Simone’s legacy as not only a leading jazz, gospel, and blues musician but also as a paragon of change.