African-American Music Appreciation Month: 5 essential reads
The story of African-American music is a story of eclipsing expectations and subverting norms.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on African American culture
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How World War I sparked the artistic movement that transformed black America
Many associate post-World War I culture with Hemingway and Fitzgerald's Lost Generation. But for black artists, writers and thinkers, the war changed the way they saw their past and their future.
The story of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, America’s first black pop star
In the 19th century, critics and audiences thought blacks were incapable of singing as well as their white, European counterparts. Greenfield forced them to reconcile their ears with their racism.
For African-American families, a daily task to combat negative stereotypes about hair
Hair has long been a source of anxiety and shame for African-Americans. One psychologist has made it her life's work to reverse this trend.
Goodbye to the barbershop?
Is the decline of the corner barbershop another indicator that male friendships and community ties are eroding? Or could it simply mean that concepts of masculinity are shifting?
How will we remember black women on the anniversary of the Charleston shooting?
Six of the nine people who died were black women. One year later, a Brandeis professor examines how black women have endured a legacy of racial violence in the U.S.
In the Lower Ninth Ward, a museum works to preserve a culture washed away
Fearing their neighborhood's rich history would be forever lost in the wake of Katrina, residents teamed up with a group of volunteers to create a museum of living history.
Exploring how black and white artists depict race
Black Like Us? – a new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art – looks at how blackness has been portrayed in American art through the years.
How BB King’s days in radio helped shape his career and music
Before being crowned the "King of the Blues," a young Riley King honed his on-stage persona and made crucial contacts as a radio DJ.
In your face: Empire is proving diversity isn’t a dirty word
Empire, a TV drama about a black hip-hop star turned music mogul, is breaking new ground by foregrounding 'risky' issues around race, sexuality and class.
Top contributors
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PhD researcher in the fields of Popular Culture and Postcolonialism, University of Western Australia
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Director, Institute for Popular Music, University of Rochester
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PhD candidate in African-American Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of California, Riverside
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Instructor in Music, Pennsylvania State University
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Associate Professor, Tulane University
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Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies, Brandeis University
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Assistant Professor of Sociology, Southern Illinois University
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Professor of English, Georgia State University
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