Scholarship/Creative Work

Select Publications

Select Books & Book Chapters

• Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music and Migration in Post-World War II Paris. Berkeley: U of California P, 2016.
• “James Baldwin’s Collaborative Dance.” James Baldwin in Context. New York: Cambridge UP, 2019.

Select Articles

• “Embodying the break in Sidney Bechet’s ‘Summertime.’” The Black Scholar 49.4 (2019).
• “Sounding out of Trauma.” The Common Reader 11 (2019).
• “Playing Diaspora as Sidney Bechet: A Meditation on Performance as Research.” Praxis: The Journal for Theatre, Performance Studies, and Criticism (2018).
• “Evoking Baldwin’s Blues.” James Baldwin Review 1 (2015): 152-163.
• “Kenny Clarke & the Desire for More Inclusive ‘Black Music.’” Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, and the Black International 4.2 (2015): 155-168.
• “Between African-American and European: Kenny Clarke’s Musical Migrations.”African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal. 4.1 (2011): 201-211.
• “Lost Jazz Lives Recovered Between Fact and Fiction.” Journal of Popular Music Studies. 20.1 (2008): 26-43.

Select Conferences, Presentations, and Interviews

• Interview with Rashida Braggs on black girl magic. Wake Up with WURD. Narr. Aaron Smith. WURD 96.1 FM, Philadelphia. November 16, 2018. Radio.
• “Performing Jazz Diasporas from Africa to the U.S. to France.” Keynote Address. International Education Week. Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, November 13, 2018.
• “Kenny Clarke: Un Style Minimal pour une Contribution Maximale.” Invited Presentation. Hot Vienne: Colloque International 100% jazz. Bibliothèque Francophone Multimédia de la Ville de Limoges, Limoges, France, October 24, 2018.
• “Angélique Kidjo: African Female Soldier for the Voiceless.” The 2^nd Symposium of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group on African Musics in Accra, Ghana, August 9-12, 2018.
• “Performance as Research: Embodying Race & Gender in Jazz.” Invited Lecture. Department of Music. McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, March 27, 2018.
• “Black Voices in Music Criticism Are Essential.” Panel Discussion. Baltimore Book Festival. Baltimore Inner Harbor, Maryland, September 24, 2017.
• “Never Human: Representation of Black Athletes in Media.” Lunch Time Presentation. Translation. Advertising Educational Foundation Visiting Professor’s Program. New York, New York, June 14, 2017.
• “Improvising Sidney Bechet’s Subjectivities.” Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium in Guelph, Canada, September 14-18, 2016.
• “A Peak into Jazz Diasporas.” Invited Lecture. Riffing the Repertoire Series. American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, October 20, 2016.
• “Stew Performs Black Consciousness.” Performing Blackness Symposium: Stew, The Negro Problem and Passing Strange. The John L. Warfield Center and The Performance as Public Practice Program. University of Texas, Austin, November 13, 2015.
• Interview on the life of Sidney Bechet. When African Americans Came to Paris, Part 2. Dir. Joanne Burke. Blue Lion Films, 2014.
• “Kenny Clarke.” L’épopée des musiques noires. Narr. Joe Farmer. Radio France Internationale. January 11, 2014.

Select Performances

• Dancer and Choreographer, “Explorations in Embodying Diaspora.” Dance/Performance in Interdisciplinary Perspective Symposium. Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, March 9, 2018.
• Dancer, “K’owo Ya.” Perf. Kuku and Nya Seven Seeds. Music Video. La Place in Paris, France, July 29, 2017.
• Spoken Word Performer and Film Editor, “Paris, Repeated Site of Flight.” James Baldwin Conference in Paris, France, May 25-28, 2016.
• Voice Artist and Choreographer, “The Round.” Projet in Situ. Mass Moca in Williamstown, Massachusetts, May 19-20, 2016.
• Dancer and Choreographer, “Me and Monsieur Bechet.” ’62 Center, Big Dance Studio. Dance 208 and Africana Studies 317. Williams College. Williamstown, Massachusetts, March 8, 2016.
• Spoken Word Performer, “Sonny’s Blues.” Merced County Arts Council in Merced, California, February 26, 2016.