This year's William Hammond Lecture on the American Tradition will feature Michael B. Gillespie, Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at NYU. He will present "What's Going On: Notes on Sonic Blackness and the Idea of 9/11 Music."
Focused on a series of music recordings and performances, the talk centers on the sonic dimensions of the art of blackness. The talk considers the irreconcilable and generative ways that a distinct circuit of songs proffers an exquisite series of disputes regarding nation, citizenship, memorialization and pleasure. As a deliberate act of deep listening and arrangement, the talk will produce an alternate writing of a post-9/11 American history attuned to a range of rhythms and unfulfilled promises.
The lecture is 4 - 5:30 pm, with a reception to follow.
Established in 1965, the William Hammond Lecture on the American Tradition began with a gift from William A. Hammond, (MA 1917 and PhD 1929).
This event is hosted by the OSU Humanities Institute. This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to help us with our catering plan.
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Michael B. Gillespie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies. He holds a PhD and MA in Cinema Studies from NYU, and a BA in English from Morehouse College.
His research interests include black visual and expressive culture, film theory, visual historiography, popular music and contemporary art. He is author of Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film (Duke University Press, 2016). The book recasts the idea of black film by posing new paradigms for narrative, aesthetics, historiography, intertextuality, ambiguity, and ambivalence. Instead of treating black film as strictly a category/genre or merely the reflection of lived experience, the book considers this cinema as a visual negotiation and irreconcilable tension between film as art and the idea of race. He is co-editor (with Lisa Uddin) of Black One Shot, an art criticism series on ASAP/J. His recent writing has appeared in Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, The Criterion Collection, ASAP/J, liquid blackness, and Ends of Cinema. He was the consulting producer on The Criterion Collection releases of Deep Cover and Shaft.
Before joining the faculty at NYU, Gillespie worked as an Associate Professor of Film in the Department of Media and Communication Arts and the Black Studies Program at The City College of New York with appointments at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He has previously taught at Ohio University, Princeton University, The New School, and Duke University.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
We value in-person engagement at our events as we strive to amplify the energy in the room. But we also recognize the fact that not all our guests will be able to visit our space. Zoom access will be available to this event upon request. If you wish to have such access or have any other accommodation request, please send your request to Megan Moriarty: moriarty.8@osu.edu.
