Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

The genesis of this special issue of the Black Music Research Journal can be traced back to a number of discussions between Samuel Floyd Jr. and myself in 2007. What, we asked ourselves, were some of the prominent theoretical concerns in recent interdisciplinary scholarship that connected current research on black music most clearly with ongoing work in a broad variety of other fields? Near the top of the list was the concept of diaspora and its theorization. This topic, we agreed, was more than substantial enough to merit not just an entire conference, but a series of conferences and/or conference sessions designed to stimulate further thinking and writing about the intersection between black music research and the theorization of “diaspora.” With this in view, Dr. Floyd and I crafted a one-paragraph statement (actually, a series of questions), giving it the title, “Reassessing the Black Music Diaspora: What Is It, Why Is It Important, and How Should It Be Understood?” Among the questions posed was the following: “Is it worth the effort to define the black music diaspora in a way that sets it apart from its semantic neighbors [e.g., “migration,” “Pan-Africanism,” “transnationalism,” and “globalization”] and allows it to become a true field of intellectual study, rather than the empty designator that it now sometimes appears to be?” Another question centered on the importance of distinctly “musical” concerns: “If we attempt to theorize the concept of diaspora from a specifically musical perspective, how might our understandings differ from, or converge with, those emerging in other contexts and disciplines?” This brief document served as the point of departure for a projected series of conferences and sessions meant to address the theme of “black music diaspora” from multiple perspectives, to be held in a number of musically important diasporal locations. During 2008–09, the Center for Black Music Research brought this projected series of events to fruition, assigning several special sessions in