UCI Claire Trevor for the School of the Arts (CTSA) presents The 1619 Project in 2020 | African American Music: the Sound of Freedom’s Journey,  organized by Nina Scolnik, UCI Music Professor
With Distinguished Guests.

Using The 1619 Project’s “Episode 3: The Birth of American Music” as a launching point, this panel explores innovation in musical expressions from spirituals to jazz and contemporary music, investigating freedom as a process in motion, not as a destination.

The 1619 Project, published by the New York Times, retells the history of the U.S. by foregrounding the arrival 401 years ago of enslaved Africans to Virginia. Through a series of essays, photos, and podcasts, The 1619 Project charts the impact of slavery on the country’s founding principles, economy, health care system, racial segregation of neighborhoods, and popular music. Conversations around The 1619 Project have served as a flashpoint for intensive ideological debates about its content and impact. It has been both widely lauded and subjected to critiques from academics, journalists, pundits and policymakers who challenge its accuracy and its interpretation of history. Conservative politicians even seek to defund schools that teach the project. What is the power of The 1619 Project to reframe our understanding of U.S. history and our contemporary society? How might we go beyond The 1619 Project to develop an even fuller understanding of the centrality of slavery and race in the U.S. and in the broader Atlantic world?  Join us for a month-long exploration of The 1619 Project, which culminates in the visit of Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of the project.