Cool Stuff! no. 1 (Native American and African Music-Cultures)

Monday’s blog topic is “Cool Stuff!” As we’ve discussed in class, your assignment is to identify concepts from the two cultures that we’ve studied so far—Native America and Sub-Saharan Africa—that you’d like to know more about, roam the web to find further information about those items, and post that info on your blog to share with your classmates. You’ll need to find at least three separate, different items to post (no, three songs sung by the same person don’t count as three separate items), and they need to be posted in such a way that others can experience them as fully as you have (i.e. any links must actually link, any downloaded pictures must actually load, any musical selections must actually play, and so forth.) Embedded videos and pictures are always preferable to links that take you elsewhere, unless you have a good reason for wanting us to go to that “elsewhere” (i.e. “I found this awesome website…”). Also write up a hefty paragraph about each of your items—why you thought it was interesting, what led you to find it, what relevance it has to our class, or anything else that seems appropriate. Feel free to get help from anyone you can (including your blogsite’s Help menu) if you consider yourself technologically challenged.

To get us started, here are two items that, had we more time, I’d be sharing with you in class.

I’ve long been fascinated by societies that are Matrilineal rather than Patrilineal, such as the Navajo Nation. Thus, as I was looking for new material a few years ago for our Native American section I found myself googling “Navajo Women,” and I came across information on the Miss Navajo Nation pageant, which then led me to Youtube. I was most fascinated by this video, which is a TED talk featuring Jolyana Bitsui, Miss Navajo Nation 2001/02. She speaks both English and Navajo during her talk. I think you’ll find that she touches on many of the themes of community and heritage that we’ve discussed in class. Towards the end of the talk, she sings a song in her native Navajo that includes several of these same themes and makes use of vocables.

I’ve also mentioned in my first blog post the many  opportunities available at the Chapman Cultural Center here in Spartanburg. Several times they’ve hosted  concerts by kora-player Sean Gaskill. Sean is originally from Washington state but relocated to Asheville several years ago. I went to a Sunday afternoon concert of his at the Chapman a few years ago. He played several solo numbers and took some time in the middle to answer questions and talk a bit about his instrument. This is a video of a participatory song he had us sing with him on the concert. (The video is from a different concert, and includes another musician, but I recognized the song!)

And, just as a treat, here is the final video that I would have shown during Thursday's class had we had the time. Things are always better with kids. 😊