LINCOLN SQUARE — The Old Town School of Folk Music will celebrate Black musical heritage and its influence on contemporary folk music during a weekend symposium.
Black History, Folk Futures is 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday at the school, 4545 N. Lincoln Ave.
Some of Saturday’s sessions will include discussions on the historical roots of hip-hop culture, Gospel music within Black spirituality and the cultural shifts and musical movements that helped create house music.
For a full itinerary, visit the website.
The aim of Saturday’s event is to examine Black musical heritage as a living history that evolves across time and space as it influences other genres or creates ones, said Jada-Amina Harvey, Old Town’s community ventures program coordinator.
“We really want to push the discourse around the intersections of Black history and folk music traditions,“ Jada-Amina said.
The Black musical canon is born out of a desire for Black liberation starting in the United State’s antebellum period to the present day. That is why there’s a through line from hymns and negro spirituals to work songs and Sly and the Family Stone, the Civil Rights Movement and Queen Latifah, Jada-Amina said.
“It does serve as this repository of history, memory, tradition and innovation. Think about how Black folks take Christianity; it was not widely practiced in West Africa. But we took what we were forced to practice and infused our own histories, memories and traditions to create what is now known as Black Gospel music,” Jada-Amina said.
Saturday’s event will also include activities such as an improvisational jam session led by artists Eva Supreme, Jaden Esi, Julian Otis and Charlie Greene. Attendees can learn about African American hymns as they perform one.
“This is the alchemy of invention, and it’s always a continuum,” Jada-Amina said. “Watch a documentary on the Beatles or the Rolling Stones and they’re going to tell you their ‘cheat code’ was they were trying to sound like Mahalia Jackson.”
The symposium is building off of work Old Town School has already been doing on the West and South sides.
In September, the school’s community wellness initiative, Community Ventures, organized Shrines of Brass, a New Orleans-inspired second line procession in Austin to honor the lives of Black people.
“Arif Smith is Old Town’s music moves manager and he thought up this remarkable idea of using some of the practices and traditions coming out of New Orleans for that September event,” Jada-Amina said.
That event was among programs the school runs on the South and West sides focusing on art from Black and Latinx diasporas, Jada-Amina said.
Saturday’s inaugural symposium continues that work and came about after discussion between Jada-Amina and Kate Walsh, Old Town’s school partnerships manager.
“Kate and I had a series of conversations and realized we’d never seen anything like this at Old Town,” Jada-Amina said. “Really focusing on reclamation and thinking of history and historical context as a way to sort of trace our shared past and reimagine and continue to think about our shared future.”
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