Ultimately interrogating, how Blackness becomes codified as “cool,” and how spectacle shapes African American life. We will unpack how North American imperialism commodifies Black identity, ultimately transforming resistance into capital leveraged to accrue soft power, while disempowering those within the imperial core. Together we’ll examine the significance of Call and Response across Black art forms, how specific social conditions give rise to Black musicality with emphasis on Jazz, rap, and vogue.

This is an invitation to engage jazz not just as music, but as an ongoing, collective response to colonialism and white supremacy.