Mission

Introduction

South Carolina served as a portal for a vast majority of African and Caribbean slaves entering this country, and with them came a wealth of musical traditions and identities. Our history and identity as a nation and region are told in this music, in the spirituals, blues, ragtime, jazz and protest songs that developed from these early slave traditions. USC's Center for Southern African-American Music will establish the centricity of Southern African-American music by collecting, preserving, teaching and performing this music, asserting its importance both as a historical and living tradition.

To date, only one Center for the study of African-American music exists in the U.S., the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) in Chicago. The CBMR, however, serves the needs of primarily a scholarly community and to date has no regional focus. In contrast, CSAM will be located in the South and will focus on the earliest African-American traditions in this country, many of which are still living oral traditions in the region. CSAM's location at the University of South Carolina answers an important educational, cultural and social need for both the region and the country as a whole.

Rescuing the neglected tradition of Southern African-American music is crucial to an understanding not only of American music history but the history of the South and the United States as a whole. Inseparable from the musical and intellectual benefits of the project, finally, are the social benefits of promoting racial harmony. By embracing this beautiful and diverse body of music and the cultural treasure it represents, CSAM will be recognizing a tradition that has not only been undervalued, but is in danger of being lost altogether. The urgency of documenting, studying and preserving this music, both in its history and as it still exists today cannot be exaggerated.

Project Goals

The Center for Southern African-American Music (CSAM) at the USC School of Music will have three component parts: an Archive, Curriculum Initiatives, and an Educational Outreach Program.

Archive

To collect, preserve and curate the music of African-Americans in the South (with a special emphasis on the music of South Carolina), CSAM will preserve the history and the heritage of this music first through the acquisition and preservation of commercial and non-commercial recordings, books, photographs and memorabilia. It will also capture this music as it exists today through contemporary field recordings and audio/videotaping. CSAM seeks to be a repository for any and all materials relating to African-American music in the South. All materials will be preserved through current archiving procedures.
To make this rare and neglected material available and easily accessible to scholars and enthusiasts, CSAM has created and hosts a multi-media website, which makes available digitally archived recordings, photos and scores, but also curated presentations enhanced by visual material from the USC Film Library's Fox Movietone News Collection. The website will offer a number of research tools including an online directory of resources in other southern libraries, museums, and repositories.

Curriculum Initiatives

To bring a knowledge of this music and its history to not only to an interdisciplinary group of scholars and researchers, but also to students at USC, CSAM will promote the study of this music through course offerings for graduate and undergraduate students, but also through an annual Guest Lecture Series at the university.
To keep this music a living tradition through musical performance CSAM will also encourage the participation of various performing groups and departments within the School of Music by providing assistantships in the area of jazz studies (Blues/Instrumental Ensemble), choral conducting (Gospel Choir), percussion (African Drumming Ensemble) and music history (Oral History Project). The Center will also promote the performance of African-American music through a Guest Artist Concert and Masterclass Series.

Educational Outreach

To involve local communities in the celebration of this music, CSAM's Educational Outreach Program will provide assistantships in the area of music education to create a program of awareness and performance of this music in South Carolina's public schools systems. It will also provide travel resources and honorarium expenses for guest African American music ensembles to perform at local schools and community centers.