Events
GIEEMP Seminar | Sentinel Musicians of the Ethiopian American Diaspora
PERMANENT SEMINAR OF THE RESEARCH GROUP ON ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND STUDIES IN POPULAR MUSIC
Sentinel Musicians of the Ethiopian American Diaspora
Kay Kaufman Shelemay | Harvard University
This presentation will discuss the forced migration of musicians from the Horn of Africa to North America beginning during the 1974 Ethiopian revolution, based on Shelemay’s 2022 book Sing and Sing On. Sentinel Musicians and the Making of the Ethiopian American Diaspora. Drawing on recollections of numerous musicians, the talk will highlight their many artistic and social initiatives, discussing the ways in which musicians have offered inspiration and leadership as “sentinels” within and beyond the rapidly growing Ethiopian American community. The presentation suggests that musicians are uniquely positioned to serve in sentinel roles, both guarding and guiding their communities at home and abroad.
Kay Kaufman Shelemay | Is the G. Gordon Watts Research Professor of Music and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University and a former Chair of the Department of Music. An ethnomusicologist specializing in musics of Africa, the Middle East, and the urban United States, she received her Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Michigan.
