In a new collaborative piece, composer/flutist Nicole Mitchell and scholar/author and MacArthur Genius Fellow Josh Kun will explore visionary/reflective glitches between 1970s and pre-apocalyptic Southern California in an exploration of race and politics of human life. Fictionally based on Mitchell’s own history moving to Anaheim as a young girl and her experiences with racism in the bright glare of suburban California sunshine. With glimpses into a future climate meltdown through her mother’s communication with the spirit world, the piece uses music and text to explore Mitchell’s family history against the backdrop of OC’s ongoing history of anti-Blackness and the LA region’s ongoing history of black musical radicalism and experimental musical thinking. Mitchell and Kun will share this new, inspired work born out of their shared interests in music as language of social reckoning and social actions. Josh Kun is Director of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, where he is Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication and Professor of Communication, Journalism and American Studies and Ethnicity.

Artist: Nicole Mitchell
Speaker: Josh Kun, Ph.D.
Program: Nicole Mitchell’s Spider Web

This program is open to all eligible individuals. USC Annenberg operates all of its programs and activities consistent with the University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.