April 2018 Archives

“Black Sound and the Archive”, the current exhibit at the Gilmore Music Library, highlights materials from the library’s Special Collections that document the history and significance of African-American sonic practices. In addition to historic sound recordings, the exhibit features an array of rare and unusual items from the library’s collections, such as an arrangement written by Mary Lou Williams, a document in Duke Ellington’s hand, and objects that belonged to J. Rosamond Johnson, the composer of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Among those objects are faded pajamas and a carved wooden cane. “The loungewear here accompanied by cane offers a glimpse of Johnson’s intimate sartorial style, the elegance and fashion ease that he maintained,” writes curator Daphne Brooks in the exhibition notes. “Like his fellow postbellum black theater peers, he valued clothing as a way to ‘redress’ the black body in the struggle for racial equality.”

The exhibit runs April 13-July 30, 2018; however, the pajamas will be on display only through May 21 because of their fragile state.

The Black Sound and the Archive Working Group at Yale University is a two-year initiative supported by Yale’s 320 York Humanities Grant that focuses on the history and significance of African-American sonic practices in tandem with a critical examination of the nature of archives. The group seeks to augment the very notion of what constitutes a black sound archive. Beyond historical sound recordings as such, African-American sonic practices are also embedded in a rich yet often opaque archive of extraordinary and everyday objects, photographs, narratives, performances, and repertoires.

The group is led by Professors Daphne Brooks (African American Studies, American Studies, Theater Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Brian Kane (Music), and includes faculty, graduate students, and undergrads from Yale and beyond. This exhibit is one of the multiple workshops, performances and other events produced by the group.

How did China’s Communist revolution transform the nation’s political culture? In this rich and vivid history of the Mao period (1949–1976), Denise Y. Ho examines the relationship between its exhibitions and its political movements. Case studies from Shanghai show how the revolution was curated: museum workers collected cultural and revolutionary relics; neighborhoods, schools, and work units mounted and narrated local displays; and exhibits provided ritual space for ideological lessons and political campaigns. Using archival sources, ephemera, interviews, and other materials, Ho traces the process by which exhibitions were developed, presented, and received. Examples under analysis range from the First Party Congress Site and the Shanghai Museum to the ‘class education’ and Red Guard exhibits that accompanied the Socialist Education Movement and the Cultural Revolution. Operating in two modes - that of a state in power and that of a state in revolution - Mao era exhibitionary culture remains part of China’s revolutionary legacy.

Denise Y. Ho is an historian of modern China, with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the Mao period (1949-1976). She is also interested in urban history, the study of information and propaganda, and the history of memory. Ho teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on modern and contemporary China, the history of Shanghai, the uses of the past in modern China, and the historiography of the Republican era and the P.R.C. 

Denise Y. Ho received her B.A. in history from Yale College and an A.M. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

The Book Talk takes place on April 19th in the International Room at Sterling Memorial Library at 4:30pm. Coffee and cookies will be provided before the talk at 4:00pm.

How did China’s Communist revolution transform the nation’s political culture? In this rich and vivid history of the Mao period (1949–1976), Denise Y. Ho examines the relationship between its exhibitions and its political movements. Case studies from Shanghai show how the revolution was curated: museum workers collected cultural and revolutionary relics; neighborhoods, schools, and work units mounted and narrated local displays; and exhibits provided ritual space for ideological lessons and political campaigns. Using archival sources, ephemera, interviews, and other materials, Ho traces the process by which exhibitions were developed, presented, and received. Examples under analysis range from the First Party Congress Site and the Shanghai Museum to the ‘class education’ and Red Guard exhibits that accompanied the Socialist Education Movement and the Cultural Revolution. Operating in two modes - that of a state in power and that of a state in revolution - Mao era exhibitionary culture remains part of China’s revolutionary legacy.

Denise Y. Ho is a historian of modern China, with a particular focus on the social and cultural history of the Mao period (1949-1976). She is also interested in urban history, the study of information and propaganda, and the history of memory. Ho teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on modern and contemporary China, the history of Shanghai, the uses of the past in modern China, and the historiography of the Republican era and the P.R.C. 

Denise Y. Ho received her B.A. in history from Yale College and an A.M. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

The Book Talk takes place on April 19th in the International Room at Sterling Memorial Library at 4:30pm. Coffee and cookies will be provided before the talk at 4:00pm.

In conjunction with the opening of a new exhibit at Gilmore Music Library, students from the Black Sound and the Archive working group will give "lightning talks" and present their online sound archives for viewing and listening. The presentations are April 13, 10 a.m.-noon. in the Center for Teaching and Learning rooms facing the Music Library entrance. The Black Sound and the Archive Exhibition is in the exhibit cases outside the entrance and will run from April 13-July 30.

Related events with jazz pianist, composer, educator Jason Moran on Thursday, April 12. 

Black Sound and the Archive Working Group at Yale University is a two-year initiative supported by Yale’s 320 York Humanities Grant that focuses on the history and significance of African-American sonic practices in tandem with a critical examination of the nature of archives. The group seeks to augment the very notion of what constitutes a black sound archive. Beyond historical sound recordings as such, African-American sonic practices are also embedded in a rich yet often opaque archive of extraordinary and everyday objects, photographs, narratives, performances, and repertoires. The group is led by Professor Daphne Brooks (African American Studies, American Studies, Theater Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Professor Brian Kane (Music), and includes faculty, graduate students, and undergrads from Yale and beyond. It produces a variety of events, including workshops, performances, and exhibits.

The Black Sound and the Archive Working Group at Yale University is a two-year initiative (supported by Yale’s 320 York Humanities Grant) that focuses on the history and significance of African-American sonic practices in tandem with critical examination of the nature of archives. The group seeks to augment the very notion of what constitutes a black sound archive. Beyond historical sound recordings as such, African-American sonic practices are also embedded in a rich yet often opaque archive of extraordinary and everyday objects, photographs, narratives, performances, and repertoires. The group is led by Professors Daphne Brooks (African American Studies, American Studies, Theater Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Brian Kane (Music), and includes faculty, graduate students, and undergrads from Yale and beyond. It produces a variety of events, including workshops, performances, and this exhibit at the Gilmore Music Library, also entitled Black Sound and the Archive. The exhibit, which runs from April 13th through July 30th 2018, features an array of rare and unusual items from the library’s collections, such as an arrangement written by Mary Lou Williams, a document in Duke Ellington’s hand, and several surprising objects (ranging from a walking stick to pajamas*) that belonged to J. Rosamond Johnson, the composer of “Lift Every Voice and Sing. In this exhibit we investigate the stories behind artifacts that have never been displayed before.

*J. Rosamond Johnson's Pajamas will be on display April 13th-May 21st only.