This year’s ASALH was an affirming and transformational experience, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Here from our fellow panelists ruminate on their ASALH experience and we share a few photo highlights.
Fredara M. Hadley
Managing Editor, Musiqology
(All photos in this post are credited to and used by permission from Birgitta Johnson.)
From Musiqology Advisory Board member, Regina Bradley, Ph.D. (@)
ASALH done sparked something in the innermost parts of my Black Girl Magic. It is always good to see the folk but this year was extremely filling and humbling to be among so much black women intelligentsia. Seriously. Black women scholars are the shit. You better ask bout us.
If we don’t speak our own names no one will.
From Musiqology Contributor, Aja Burrell Wood (@alwaysAja)
Still all a glow from having a successful roundtable discussion with these brilliant ladies yesterday! #BarakaASALH #ASALH100 #blackmusicscholarship#ethnomusicologyinaction #blackgirlsrock #sistahscholars #CriticalGriots
From Musiqology Contributor, Alisha Lola Jones, Ph.D. (@move_and_shake)
Yesterday was such a packed day in the ATL. We had a great time presenting our #BlackMusic research at #asalh this year!!! Big ups to my co-presenters Aja Burrell Wood, Regina Bradley, Fredara Hadley, and Birgitta Johnson (pictured top left). We connected with secret weapon producers/musicians such as my #DESA brother Daniel Moore (presently Mariah Carey, The Jacksons, BET, and Sunday Best bands) who got off of his sick bed and came to hear our research (pictured right) !!! smile emoticon And then we partied with producer and master drummer John Roberts aka Lil John (presently Janet Jackson, BET, and Sunday Best bands; pictured in concert bottom left). #asalh100 #blackexcellence #barakaasalh #desa
From Musiqology Contributor Birgitta Johnson (@DrBirgittaSays)
This week’s time at Asalh Annual Convention was absolutely wonderful. This conference should be nicknamed “The Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” conclave. ASALH can give GMWA a run for its money #NoBreaks. I have throughly enjoyed sharing my work and the field-expanding work of my super colleagues and sista friends Fredara Mareva Hadley, Alisha Lola Jones, Aja Burrell Wood and Regina N. Bradley #BarakaASALH as well as meeting new folks on the mission to chronicle the epic vastness of the Black experience, nationally and internationally. Seeing so many of my Facebook friends in real life for the first time was surreal and proof that online communities are “real” and are valid. Seeing the elders, foot soldiers and pioneers in America’s human rights movements still stirred to keep the fire going was centering and encouraging. This mix of attendees from the scholars, activists, educators, students, entrepreneurs, artists, public servants, and everyday folks trying to keep hand to ploy for our people is unparalleled. Visiting the city these days means a lot a gentrification geographic aphasia for me; it is unsettling and disorienting but #ASALH100puts that unease to the margins like a party pooper being pushed to the back of a crowd as a mighty HBCU marching band comes down the avenue. There were some good times had here and I would be remiss for not taking at least a few minutes to speak on it as I lay on a heating pad in this too awesome Air BnB apartment. As with my host’s chalkboard wall, I am encouraged that while there is much to do, we are making our mark. There is still much to do but you better believe that there are at least two folks with membership in ASALH on this earth working on it or creating a task force to start the work on it
“‘Who Stole the Soul:’ Black Music and the Struggle for Empowerment in the Twentieth Century Panel” featuring Scot Brown, Portia Maultsby, James Mtume, and Michelle R. Scott
“Making Modern Atlanta A City of ReInvention” featuring Maurice J. Hobson (not pictured), Regina Bradley (not pictured), Anita Law Beaty, Burnella “Bunnie” Jackson-Ransom, Karl Barnes, and Andrew Young
“Preserving the Beats: Collecting Hip Hop and House Music” featuring Aaisha Hykal, Timothy Anne Burnside, Andrea Jackson, Chianta Dorsey, Lauren G. Lowery
“Give Light and People Will Find the Way:The Future of the Field of Black Women’s Studies” featuring Natanya Duncan, Farah Griffin, Faye V. Harrison, Jessica Marie Johnson, Tiffany Gill, Tiffany Ruby Patterson, and Alondra Nelson
“Baraka’s Blues People At 50: Race, Rhythm, and Views in the Study of African American Music Culture Today” featuring Birgitta Johnson, Regina Bradley, Aja Burrell Wood, Alisha Lola Jones, and Fredara M. Hadley
Tags: ASALH, asalh 100, Atlanta, Black Studies, conferences, scholarship