Brassroots Democracy

Join us to celebrate the launch of Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons. This book recasts the birth of jazz, and unearths vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to reveal how early jazz was inextricably tied to the mass mobilization of freedpeople during Reconstruction and the decades that followed. Black brass bands rehearsed participatory democracy through collective performance, and their militant spirit embodied the democratic ethos of Black Reconstruction—“Brassroots Democracy.” Benjamin Barson presents a transnational “music history from below,” tracing how the families of prominent early jazz traversed New Orleans, Mexico, and Haiti, as they built communes, performed at Civil Rights rallies, and participated in general strikes.

Speakers

Benjamin Barson is a saxophonist, historian, radical educator, and organizer. He is an assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. He received his PhD in Music from the University of Pittsburgh and recently completed a Fulbright Garcia-Robles postdoctoral fellowship at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Africana Studies & Research Center. He is the winner of the 2018 Johnny Mandel Prize from ASCAP for his composition “Insurrealista,” and was a member with the Afro Yaqui Music Collective when the group was named Pittsburgh “Best Jazz Band” by the readers of the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2018. Barson is also an activist, and was a cultural organizer in the campaign to free political prisoner and Black power activist Russell Maroon Shoatz. He currently works closely with a group inspired by maroon’s legacy named Ecosocialist Horizons.

Gizelxanath Rodriguez is an internationally renowned vocalist, cellist, guitarist, and educator. Fluent in five languages, Rodriguez’s musical work spans a range of styles and cultures. Gizelxanath has led several bands with her partner Benjamin Barson, including the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, Insurrealistas, and Latin Sway. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Latin Ace Award for her contribution to New York’s Latin American music scene. She has studied at the Mozarteum Hochschule für Musik, the Conservatory of Tijuana, and the University of Baja California in Mexico.