To mark the 50th anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, the Center for the Study of Social Difference (CSSD) at Columbia University is organizing a full-day symposium and accompanying concert.
Held in partnership with The People’s Forum, the symposium and accompanying concert will reflect on the groundbreaking album’s insights into life in the wake of civil rights and decolonial movements across the African world, and on the legacies of Wonder’s hopeful vision of a future grounded in love and shared humanity. They will kick off a yearlong series of public events and study sessions organized by CSSD that respond to the U.S. semiquincentennial and offer a critical counternarrative to officially sanctioned accounts of the past by focusing on works with alternative anniversaries which illuminate the experiences of minoritized communities.
The symposium features four panels, each focusing on one side of Wonder’s four-sided album. Panels will bring together scholars and musicians for conversations that incorporate close listening and improvisational demonstrations. Themes broached in discussions will range from urban Black and brown impoverishment and jazz as a form of Black resistance to Black familial love and Global South solidarities. Panelists include Marcus J. Moore, LaFrae Sci, Samora Pinderhughes, Naomi Extra, Naima Cochrane, Immanuel Wilkins, Toshi Reagon, and Shana L. Redmond. The symposium will end with a jam session building off of the album’s bonus tracks, led by Dr. Guthrie Ramsey’s Musiqology, and a reception.
Taking place at The People’s Forum, the symposium, which is co-sponsored by the Center for Jazz Studies, is free and open for all to attend. Registration is required. Register here.
Following the symposium, CSSD is proud to co-present, along with Pique-nique, Boom Collective and The Radio in the Orchard (TRiO), a concert featuring musician Elliott Skinner at The Pocket Jazz Club. Organized as part of Pique-nique’s “Take Two” series, the concert will include a listening session of Wonder’s album followed by a reinterpretation by Skinner. Blending soul, blues, folk, and rock, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Skinner creates music that combines atmospheric vocals and rich instrumentation with an emphasis on personal storytelling. His work draws from the Black Radical Music Tradition, a lineage of Black artists who have used music to explore identity, confront social realities, and imagine new possibilities for freedom. To purchase tickets for the concert, follow the link here.
