UCLA’s Cheryl Keyes visits CSUMB

Dr. Cheryl Keyes, professor of ethnomusicology in the School of Music at UCLA, will lecture on the development of rap/hip-hop music when she visits CSU Monterey Bay on Dec. 6.

The free lecture will be held from 10 to 11:50 a.m. in the Music Hall on Sixth Avenue and Butler Street.

Dr. Keyes is the author of “Rap Music and Street Consciousness,” which received a CHOICE award for outstanding academic books when it was published in 2004.

This professor speaks the language of the streets; she also speaks on panels and at seminars as a nationally recognized rap/hip-hop scholar whose academic credentials include a Ph.D. from Indiana University.

While “rap” defines the music, Dr. Keyes told the Long Beach Press-Telegram, hip-hop embodies a larger “youth art movement,” composed of music, graffiti, attitude and dress. Her work draws on research she has done in West Africa, New York City, Detroit, Los Angeles and London.

Rap music, according to Dr. Keyes, is a forum that addresses the political and economic disenfranchisement of black youths and other groups, fosters ethnic pride, and displays cultural values and aesthetics. Blending popular culture with folklore and ethnomusicology, she offers a nuanced portrait of the artists, themes, and various styles reflective of urban life and street consciousness. A filmmaker, she has completed a documentary called “Beyond Central Avenue: Contemporary Female Jazz Instrumentalists of Los Angeles,” funded by UCLA’s Center for Community Partnerships. Her musical creative works have been performed by the Women’s Jazz Orchestra of Los Angeles. As a performer, she played with trumpeter Clark Terry’s All-Girl All-Star Jazz Band, and she has recorded with New Orleans rhythm-blues pianist Eddie Bo, and with jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste. Her debut CD, Let Me Take You There, won an Image Award from the NAACP in the category of Outstanding World Music Album.” Driving directions and a campus map are available here. While the lecture is free, visitors must buy a parking permit from machines located on the adjacent lot.

For more information or to arrange for disability accommodations, contact Nicole Mendoza at 582-3009.