Denison University will open its annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration with a reception and talk by Dr. Portia Maultsby, professor and enthomusicologist from Indiana University, at 6 p.m., on Thursday, Jan. 22, in the Presidents Room of the William H. Doane Library (400 West Loop). The title of her talk is “Fight the Power with Black Power: Black Music and Political/Social Activism in the 1960s and 1970s.” The reception, sponsored by the Denison Library, is free and open to the public.

Maultsby is professor of folklore and ethnomusicology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University and director of the Archives of African American Music and Culture. Her presentation will examine the ways in which soul and funk musicians promoted the ideology of Black Power among African Americans help to unify, rebuild, and sustain this community during an era of political and social change.

For a brief biography of Dr. Maultsby, please link here.

For an overview of Denison’s 2009 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, please link here.

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