Event

This presentation examines the history of African American classical musicians in communist East Germany. East German listeners placed  African American musical performance within a marxist framework that applauded black struggles against capitalist oppression. Yet East German reception of these musicians also reveals the limitations of their claims to international solidarity. However much GDR officials incorporated black musicians into the global struggle for communism, they also created racial interpretations of black music-making that relied on preexisting musical and historical tropes. Local responses to black performers of German music illustrate the tension between public claims of support against racism and the perpetuation of racialized discourses of music.