Lectures in Musicology: Matt Sakakeeny, Tulane University

Matt Sakakeeny, associate professor of music at Tulane University, presents "The Politics of Hope in the Time of Crisis." This lecture is sponsored by EMIC, Graduate Student Interest Group for Expressive Culture; co-sponsored by the School of Music and The Ohio State University Libraries.

A sense of permanent insecurity has become pervasive in the twenty-first century, as faith in the American Dream’s core promise of collective social improvement is all but extinguished. For the most vulnerable Americans, the perpetual “time of crisis” demands a “politics of hope,” such that present actions are guided by dreams of getting somewhere in the future. In New Orleans, Black families participating in The Roots of Music afterschool program see it as an antidote to economic insecurity, substandard education, criminality and violence, policing and incarceration, and other social harms. They pin their hopes on the idea — however preposterous, or profound — that music saves lives. Based on seventeen years of observing rehearsals, attending performances, traveling on field trips, and interviewing students, parents, and teachers, this talk presents the Black Southern marching band tradition as a protective space for nurturing and enjoying life in the present, as well as a productive activity for fostering prosperity and well-being in the future.

Matt Sakakeeny is associate professor of music at Tulane University. His work relates music and sound to structures of inequality, especially anti-Black racism in New Orleans. He is currently writing a book about The Roots of Music, an after-school program with which he has volunteered since 2008. His current project builds on his first book, Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, which followed brass band musicians as they marched off the streets and into nightclubs, festival grounds, and recording studios.