The History of Black Music — A Love Supreme

On Monday, March 4, 2024, award-winning musicologist and music historian Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. will discuss his book Who Hears Here?: On Black Music, Pasts and Present.

A Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is a music historian, pianist, composer, and Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Pennsylvania.

A widely-published writer, he’s the author, co-author, or editor of four music history books and many essays and articles. Who Hears Here? On Black Music, Pasts and Present (2022) is his latest book. As a producer, label head, and leader of the band Dr. Guy’s Musiqology, Ramsey has released five recording projects and has performed at venues worldwide. Ramsey hosted the Musiqology Podcast, and Musiqology Rx is his community arts initiative that provides quality arts programming to under-served communities. He has written for and consulted with museums and galleries, and was co-curator of the acclaimed exhibition Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Dr. Ramsey has lectured on music nationally and internationally.

Ramsey will be in conversation with Jesse Hagopian. Jesse teaches Ethnic Studies and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School in Seattle. He is an editor for Rethinking Schools, the co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives, editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing, and on the leadership team of the Zinn Education Project.

These online classes with people’s historians are held at least once a month (generally on Mondays) at 4:00 pm PT / 7:00 pm ET for 90 minutes. In each session, the historian is interviewed by a teacher and breakout rooms allow participants to meet each other in small groups, discuss the content, and share teaching ideas. We designed the sessions for teachers and other school staff. Parents, students, and others are also welcome to participate.