Blowing Through The Jasmine In My Mind: The Things I Saw This Summer

Well, I guess it’s “all in” for the next semester and a new year for Musiqology.  We hope you like our new look. But don’t think we’re “all front and no back” because we’ve got big plans afoot about content, so please stay tuned musiqologists!

It was stunning this summer to read Langston Hughes’ memoir The Big Sea (1940) – an engaging account of his coming of age as a politically minded artist.  And it was surprising to discover that I had traced so many of his steps during his grand adventures at home and abroad. The memories of my cultural trek will stay with me forever as inspiration, motivation and grist for future projects. I was hanging hard this summer: Archie Shepp, Monet, Paul Gilroy, the Venice Biennale, Lorna Simpson, Denise King, the Jeu de Paume, Salim Washington, Michael Veal and Aqua Ife, music clubs and exhibitions in New York, London and Paris, and Chicago, a commencement for one of Ph.D’s, a Los Angeles Bud Powell book event, and more.  It’s my pleasure to share this photo essay of some of the wonders I encountered along the way.

Here’s to our health, moving art, insight, and productivity during this upcoming academic year.  Musiqology will be here teaching and taking in all the culture and reporting what we’ve shared and learned.