Black Music: Black Music Division – A Retrospective

Course Description

Summary

In the early 70s Bennington music faculty members Bill Dixon and Milford Graves guided Bennington students through a black aesthetic, an awakening using music, words and deeds. Their compositions, teachings, and innovative approach to creative music boldly addressed a multitude of issues in the wake of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. This ever-evolving course reflects on social, political and cultural content created as an outcry from artists such as Nina Simone, Beyoncé Knowles, Jimi Hendrix, The Last Poets, Public Enemy, Kendrick Lamar, Anohni and many others. Students will investigate how these movements instigated an awakening in the artistic community that inspired a revolution that continues to resonate today. Researching Bennington’s archives, documentaries, photos, video, recorded, and written words, along with videotaped musical performances from the 2017 installation of Black Spring presented in the USDAN Gallery, students will formulate a collective memory installation through a campus invited presentation.