Neo Muyunga’s opera, "The Struggle," serves as a departure point for a panel discussion at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 2 at the Hammer Museum. The panel will explore the role of black opera and other genres of black music in achieving racial justice and social change, the persistent exclusionary politics of musical genres and the future revolutionary potential of historically defined black genres.
The event, which is free and open to the public, is co-presented by the Hammer and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The discussion will be moderated by UCLA musicology professor Tamara Levitz. Panelists will include UCLA history professors Robin Kelley and Gary Nash; Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African and African-American studies at Duke University; Guthrie Ramsey, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania; Shana Redmond, associate professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California; and Gayle Murchison, associate professor of musicology at the College of William and Mary.