This week a University of Connecticut professor will give presentations as part of Black History Month on the MU Campus. Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar is the current Director in the center for the study of popular music at UCONN. He will give two presentations titled ‘Hip-Hop, Race and American Culture’ and ‘Protest, Popular Music and Society”.
Ogbar says the aim is to assist students in looking beyond the music’s face value and understand the deeper context of certain elements. He said that in Beyonce’s Super Bowl half-time show, there was “inflections of militancy and address, but really have no context for what she’s talking about. Have no context for what her video formation was about. Have no context for what Kendrick Lamar did at the Grammy’s, coming in with shackles and being imprisoned.”
He says because MU has seen racial protests and unrest in the last 12 months, he is very excited to discuss these issues with staff and students. He said “I’ve never known of a situation in all the University demonstrations where a sports team has made such a decision and a stance that ended in the resignation of the president.”
These presentations we be held in Middlebush 12 at 6 p.m. this Wednesday evening and at Stotler 1 in Memorial Union this Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Both students and the public are welcome on Thursday.