They Not Like Us: Figures and Abstractions in American Music with Dr. Guthrie Ramsey

This multimedia presentation combines narration, poetry, video, and live music to explore key themes in the history of American music.

Dr. Guthrie Ramsey surveys the development of African American music practice from the colonial period to the present. With a focus on music’s dual functions of expressing cultural identity and bringing people of different backgrounds together, Ramsey clarifies how music of the African diaspora has involved unique systems of creation, promotion, and consumption.

Presented by Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. and Musiqology Media Group

About the presenter
A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. is a music historian, pianist, composer, and professor emeritus of music at the University of Pennsylvania. A widely published writer, he’s the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2003), and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop (2013). His books in progress include the essay collection Who Hears Here? and Sound Proof: Black Music, Magic and Racial Intimacies, a history of African American music from the era of enslavement to the present.

As a producer, label head, and leader of the band Dr. Guy’s Musiqology, Dr. Ramsey has released five recording projects and has performed at venues worldwide. He hosts the Musiqology podcast, and Musiqology Rx is his community arts initiative that provides quality arts programming to underserved communities. He has written for and consulted with museums and galleries and was co-curator of the acclaimed exhibition Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment (2010) for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2010.

Image: Courtesy of the presenter