The College of Music, along with partnering departments and colleges, continued offering events through the spring semester as part of the university’s yearlong “Project 60/50” initiative. Two well-known scholars visited campus to help commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Topeka and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Emmett Price spoke about “Spirituality and Social Justice in Black Music: The Case of John Coltrane” in March. Price is an associate professor of music and former chair of the Department of African American Studies at Northeastern University. He is considered a leading expert on African American music and culture, and known for his cutting edge research on bridging the generational divide.

An expert on popular and African American music, musical aesthetics, and transnationalism, Portia Maultsby, gave a lecture titled “‘Freedom Now’ and  ‘Black Power’: Their Ideological Manifestations in Soul and Funk Music” in April. Maultsby is professor emerita of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University.

Both guests also engaged with students through classes and seminars in the College of Music and in James Madison College, two of the partners in this endeavor. Other colleges and departments included the College of Social Science and the LeFrak Forum and Symposium on Science, Reason, & Modern Democracy in the Department of Political Science.