Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)
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The Pitch of Blackness: Sounding Race on Broadway (Critical Race Lecture)
Session Topics: African American / Black Studies, Opera / Musical Theater, Race / Ethnicity / Social Justice
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The Pitch of Blackness: Sounding Race on Broadway (Critical Race Lecture) Northwestern University Organized by the AMS Committee on Race, Indigeneity, and Ethnicity. This talk will explore the ways that show tunes have staged and musicalized Black and brown characters in US musical theatre, with a focus on voice and affect. In addition to color and sound, the title here also references the emotional pitch at which such performances must operate. From Show Boat (1927) to Ragtime (1998) and beyond, deep-seated racial histories anchor unspoken assumptions about the ways that humor, suffering, and uplift should animate American song. Drawing on my background as a writer and composer of musicals on and off Broadway, I consider the function of racialized affect in the dramaturgy of song and in musical theatre writing conventions. What is at stake for performers and audiences of color when classic works that sound Black and brown suffering are reified? How have musical theatre artists of color responded to the racial-affective mandates of the American musical as a form? | |