Uttered Silence: A Black Feminist Ethnomusicology as Care and Repair

Kyra Gaunt presents a colloquium on anti-Blackness and the particular f*ckery Black girls face online and in real life around twerking and voice. Kyra Gaunt, Ph.D. (University at Albany SUNY) is a digital ethnomusicologist known for her work on kinetic orality and the gendered twist of music-making from girls to men in Black popular music since the 1920s. Her latest research explores music as a game and an agent of violence against girls on the musical Internet, particularly young Black girls from YouTube to TikTok. In this presentation, Dr. Gaunt discusses the weathering effects of musical misogynoir on the sexual and reproductive health of girls online. If sexism causes harm to Black women, why not repeated exposure to the sexism and anti-Black misogyny of certain styles of hip-hop and club music. Everyone but the Black girl profits from her dance online.

This event is supported by the Diversity Fund​, ​the Anthropology Department​, ​the Department of Studies in Race Colonialism and Diaspora​, ​the International Relations Program​, ​the Civic Studies Program​, and the Granoff Music Fund. ​