BORN is extremely proud to announce that Prof Naomi André has won the American Musicological Society’s Judy Tsou Critical Race Studies Award for her monograph, Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement (University of Illinois Press, 2018).
Black Opera analyzes how American and South African artists and composers have used opera to reclaim Black people’s place in history. Framing Black operatic activity as a ‘shadow culture’ too long neglected by dominant musicological narratives, André excavates complex truths about the interactions between race, gender, sexuality, and cultural ideology across diverse geographical and historical contexts. She reveals opera as a fertile site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change, and offers a nascent framework through which to comprehend this art form’s place in Black cultural and political self-actualization.
Congratulations Naomi on your remarkable achievement!