12 Weeks
Level 1
3-Credit Tuition
$1,545Non-Credit Tuition
$1,290This course explores the brilliant, resilient, and demonstrative hope of Black Creative Expression with emphasis on music, dance, and theater. Across the African Diaspora, Black Creative Expression has exemplified timely, relevant, and even futuristic articulations of joy, concern, aspiration, and expectation. Inclusive of African, Caribbean, AfroLatinidad, and African American creative voices, this course will explore excerpts of canonical works through three interpretive lenses: the message, the messenger(s), and the approach used to communicate. This semester’s journey will introduce you to the discipline of Africana Studies and its rich contributions to understanding arts and cultures. Through an assortment of weekly reading, listening, viewing, and writing assignments, you will experience how Afro-Diasporic artistic expressions worldwide have both advanced liberation, equality, and justice and contributed to an expansive body of innovative, creative work.
Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
- experience, appreciate, and value Black Creative Expression
- survey the various changes and transitions within the regional and generational expressions of art and culture within the African Diaspora
- effectively read, understand, learn from, and engage with texts in the study of Black Creative Expression
- appreciate more deeply the expressions, cultures, and people of the African Diaspora
- continue a personal commitment on a journey of learning/unlearning relative to the African Diaspora and Black Creative Expression
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Experiencing the African Diaspora through Music, Dance, and Theater
- Experiencing Art as Culture
- Context and Content: Discerning Importance
- Aesthetics
- Learning and Unlearning
- Reflecting on Personal Expression in the Form of Music, Dance, and Theater
- Assignment 1: Reflection on Art
Lesson 2: Africana Studies and Black Creative Expression
- Africana Studies: Through the Lens of Music, Dance, and Theater
- Maafa: A Different Way of Considering the Impact of Slavery
- Blindspots and Biases
- Colonialism
- Historical Representation in Art
- Making it Personal
- Assignment 2: Reflection on Empathy
Lesson 3: Exploring Afrobeats, Nollywood, and Contemporary Embodied Expression in Africa
- Reimagining Contemporary Africa
- Afrobeats: Engaging a Global Phenomenon
- Nollywood: From the Village to the International Screen
- Embodiment as a Mode of Communication
- Assignment 3: Reflection on Contemporary Black Creative Expression from Africa
Lesson 4: Storytelling and the Griot: Traditional Approaches to Music, Dance, and Theater in Africa
- The Griot
- Agbekor and Adzogbo of the Ewe
- Babenzele, Bakan, and Bakweri Expressions
- The Sounds of the Xhosa People
- The Music and Dance of the Luo People
- The Gnawa People
- Assignment 4: Reflections on Traditional Black Creative Expression from Africa
Lesson 5: Experiencing Carnival throughout the Caribbean
- ‘Playing Mas’
- The Rise of Calypso and Soca
- Panorama
- J’ouvert
- Carnival across the Caribbean/West Indies
- Assignment 5: Reflection on Carnival as Black Creative Expression
Lesson 6: Four Caribbean Case Studies
- From the Continent to the Caribbean
- Mizik Rasin (Haiti)
- Goombay (Bahamas)
- Danzon (Cuba)
- Kwadril (St. Lucia, Dominica, and Guadeloupe)
- Assignment 6: Reflections on Four Caribbean Case Studies
Lesson 7: Four Afro-Latinidad Case Studies from South and Central America
- Exploring Afro-Latinidad Contexts for Black Creative Expression
- Merengue (Venezuela)
- Cumbia (Colombia)
- Zamacueca (Peru)
- Reggaeton (Panama)
- Assignment 7: Reflections on Four Afro-Latinidad Case Studies
Lesson 8: Exploring Black Creative Expression in Bahia, Brazil
- The Impact and Influence of Slavery
- Candomblé
- Capoeira: The Brazilian Martial Art Disguised as Dance
- Samba, Afoxé, and Axé
- Assignment 8: Reflection on Location-Based Black Creative Expression
Lesson 9: Hip Hop Culture in the US
- From Rap Music to Hip-Hop Culture
- ‘The Message’
- The Industry
- Examining the Role of Music, Theater, and Dance within Hip Hop Culture
- Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton
- Assignment 9: Reflections on Hip-Hop Culture in the United States
Lesson 10: From the Field to the Stage: Black Music, Dance, and Theater in the US
- The Minstrel Era
- The Negro Renaissance
- The Civil Rights Movement
- The Black Arts Movement
- Hip-Hop Culture as Movement
- The Black Lives Matter Movement
- Assignment 10: Reflections on Black Creative Expression and Movements
Lesson 11: Afrofuturism: From Mansa Musa and the Mali Empire to Wakanda
- Defining/Describing Afrofuturism
- Sun Ra
- Parliament-Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock, and George Duke
- Janelle Monáe, Missy Elliott, and Erykah Badu
- Beyonce’s Lemonade
- Assignment 11: Reflections on Afrofuturism
Lesson 12: Black Creative Expression: The Coda
- Developing a Rubric of Analysis
- Interpreting the Muse through Research
- Honing a Creative Process
- Presenting New Works
- The Process of Self-Critique
- Assignment 12: Culminating Experience Project
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
This course does not have any prerequisites.
Software
- Word processing software, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs (free), Apple Pages, Apache OpenOffice (free), etc.
Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author & Instructor
Emmett G. Price III, PhD, is the founding dean of Africana Studies at Berklee College of Music. An internationally recognized expert on Black music and culture, Afro-diasporic sacred and secular expressions, and Christian worship, he has spent much of the past few decades writing, lecturing, and conducting cutting-edge research on bridging the generational divide. Price is the author of Hip Hop Culture (ABC-CLIO, 2006), executive editor of the Encyclopedia of African American Music (ABC-CLIO, 2011), and editor of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture: Toward Bridging the Generational Divide (Scarecrow Press, 2012). He is the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Along with numerous commissioned writings and book-length chapters, his work can be found in American Music, Black Music Research Journal, Ethnomusicology, International Jazz Archives Journal, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Yale Journal of Music and Religion, and many other publications.
A celebrated keynote and motivational speaker in high demand, Price has addressed audiences at Nike, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the American Jazz Museum, and many more. He has appeared on WGBH-TV’s Basic Black, WNYC’s RadioLab, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Price regularly contributes to WGBH’s Boston Public Radio segment All Rev’d Up! and is the co-executive producer and co-host of the popular All Rev’d Up podcast. A trained musician, composer, and arranger, Price has performed around the globe with numerous sacred music ensembles, gospel choirs, and jazz bands. Read Less
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Black Creative Expression: An Introduction to Africana Studies can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:
Related Certificate Programs
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
