Fly Folk in the Buttermilk: A Black Music and Culture Writing Workshop

This course in honor of the late, great music journalist and thinker, Greg Tate, is designed to introduce popular music writing as a genre to students from all academic backgrounds. From cultural criticism, liner notes, music journalism, and DJ scholarship and more - this course explores the art of music writing with lectures, discussion and ongoing feedback on student writing from Special Guest Artists DJ Lynnée Denise and Daniel Gray-Kontar. Students will also have the opportunity to read and analyze various types of music writing in public and scholarly venues, and if they choose, to build a portfolio of their own working across several possible genres. Nationally and internationally renowned guests will visit with the class regularly to share their journeys as writers and offer their views on craft, aesthetics, and principles for writers to consider as they work on their own craft. These guests will include: Cheo Hodari Coker, journalist at The Source Magazine turned television/film writer of Creed II; Joan Morgan, long-time music and culture writer who coined the phrase Hip-Hop Feminism; Fredara Hadley, ethnomusicology professor at The Juilliard School; Scott Poulsen Bryant, co-founding editor of Vibe Magazine, and others. This spring course is presented by the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, IDA.