Generation after generation has grown up listening to various kinds of music from spirituals to blues and jazz to rap. But the roots of these musical genres may often be overlooked.
On Wednesday, Dr. JoAnne Stephenson, an associate professor in the music department at UCF, shared these roots by presenting an overview of music that was created by African Americans. Her presentation was part of UCF’s Office of Diversity Initiatives’ signature events called DiversiTeas.
Barbara Thompson, assistant director of diversity education and faculty engagement, said that the DiversiTeas are held annually every March and September. Each presents a different aspect of diversity. In March, the focus is to expose people to different cultures and in September, the focus is placed more on hot topics such as stories of Holocaust survivors or war veterans re-entering daily life.
Wednesday’s event was held in one of the Recreation and Wellness Center’s newly created multipurpose rooms and was broadcasted to UCF’s other regional campuses, including Cocoa, Palm Bay and Sanford/Lake Mary.
Stephenson, who teaches a course similar to her presentation, brought her audience through musical history from the 1600s to the present age, exploring the key themes and people that shaped music culture.
She began with an overview of what was going on in Africa before Africans came to America, because she thinks it is important to understand the background in order to understand the music.
“When we talk about Africa and when we talk about the music it’s really important to understand that the music was a very integral part of their existence,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson incorporated various YouTube music videos within her presentation and despite technical difficulties in the latter half of her presentation, Stephenson continued to engage the audience with humor and even her own renditions of some of the music she was presenting.
Andrea Burress, a junior elementary music education major, enjoyed the presentation.
“Just an understanding of the different types of music and the hardships and why the music evolved how it did, that was really helpful,” Burress said.
Angela Hobbs, a freshman choral music education major, said she learned a lot from Stephenson about the background that shaped African American music.
“I thought I would know a lot more about African American music because growing up my dad would play a lot, just on the radio and the funk stuff, but I really learned where I came from and I found that that was really interesting,” Hobbs said.
As an education major, Hobbs was able to see ways that she could incorporate what she learned into her classroom.
“I’d like to inform my students, if they’re singing a type of African American song maybe make sure they know the history of it before they’re singing it. I feel like that can help them in their performance,”Hobbs said.
