The Online Program of events for the SEM 2024 Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early October.
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12I: The Music of Our Neighbors: Cultural Diversity in Small-Town Germany
Time:
Wednesday, 23/Oct/2024:
12:30pm - 2:15pm
Presentations
The Music of Our Neighbors: Cultural Diversity in Small-Town Germany
Juniper Lynn Hill, Cornelia Guenauer
University of Wurzburg
In the Applied Ethnomusicology project “Learning from Ethnomusicology and Our Neighbors: Musical Heritage, Creativity, and Intercultural Engagement” supported the Volkswagen Foundation, we aim to educate the dominant culture about diverse cultural expressions in small-town Germany, to counter stereotypes about post-migrant cultures, and to assist under-acknowledged artists in networking, transmitting their heritage, and sharing their stories and creativity. The resulting film The Music of Our Neighbors features six portraits of artists who make their lives in and around Würzburg, a conservative-leaning provincial city known for its wine festivals and local Franconian identity. Franconian accordionist Bernd uses folk music to connect with dancers, the elderly, and hospitalized youth. André teaches African drumming and gives benefit concerts for a school in his former hometown Kinshasa. German-born software engineer Elizabeth dances Kathak and Bollywood to de-stress and pass on her Indian heritage to children. The Bolivian-Ecuadorian-German family Rosenbaum build community with their Spanish-speaking and German neighbors through Andean folklore. Syrian-German rapper Niro integrates Arabic influences into his German-language rap and teaches hip-hop to German and migrant youth. Guitarist Rob journeyed from Metís community music in Canada to rock, EDM, and flamenco, collaborating with his Spanish-German wife Mercedes in teaching and organizing flamenco events. Their combined experiences provide insights into the intercultural struggles (racism, cultural policing) and joys (interpersonal connections) that characterize the increasing diversity of provincial Europe today. We aim to contribute to work on music and migration (Stokes 2021), cityscapes (Finnegan 2007), Applied Ethnomusicology (Pettan and Titon 2015), and Audiovisual Ethnomusicology (Norton 2021).