Contemporary Black Sonic Politics & Practice

Enjoy a discussion based on the insights of race scholars on sound, how sound can shape the social construct of race and people’s personal experiences as racialized subjects and how sound participates in the reproduction of racist dynamics.

Jasmine A. Henry (she/her) is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in Black electronic dance music, independent music production, and Afrofuturism. Her current book project examines the history of Black urban club music and party cultures in Newark, New Jersey. The project investigates how DJs, dancers, and producers navigate the transhistorical cultural politics of Black club music-making on local, regional, and global levels. Henry’s scholarly practices are deeply informed by her music production background. As a live sound engineer, she has entertained international audiences through her work on critically acclaimed productions such as the Blue Man Group, HBO’s The Newsroom, and Broadway’s Chicago the Musical. From 2017 to 2022, she served as the Media Lab Director at the Newark School of the Arts where she provided youth from historically marginalized backgrounds with access to music technologies and industry knowledge.


Hosted by Prof Antía González Ben