Ithaca College invites you to embark upon a critical exploration of the African contribution to musical expression and to consider with us the significance of this contribution in all of its variety across time and space. We hope that this series will be a catalyst for making far-reaching revisions to our curriculum and the first step toward a serious intellectual inquiry into the music, history, art, literature, and experiences of the African diaspora that so greatly influenced the defining of the Americas.

This series, devoted to Africa‘s considerable contribution to the Caribbean and the Americas, is the result of the collaboration of the College’s Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity and its School of Music. As the interdisciplinary steering committee planned for the series, it became increasingly clear that the richness of expression was more than we could address in many years. Our knowledge, too, was constrained by our allegiances both to other disciplines and to other musical traditions. Nevertheless, the importance of this area of inquiry, an often unacknowledged but critical source of creativity and intellectual vitality, lent urgency to our formal recognition and action in the development of this series.

What we present, then, is the result of preliminary rather than comprehensive study, an introduction to African-derived cultural wealth in "new world" currency. We invite those of you who know more to make recommendations for future programming, whether in the form of public events such as this series, curriculum development for our students, or new interdisciplinary paths for the revitalization of the academy.

A list of suggested readings about the music of the African diaspora is available.

*The members of the steering committee are Julian Euell, Naeem Inayatullah, Colleen Kattau, Jamal Rossi, Tanya R. Saunders, Elizabeth Simkin, Gordon Stout, Debra Vialet, and Dana Wilson.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodation should contact the Office of Affirmative Action at 607-274-3909 (voice), 607-274-1767 (TDD), or bleblanc@ithaca.edu as much in advance of the event as possible..