Benjamin Barson, Ph.D.
“Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons”
Wednesday, May 28, 2025 | 5 pm | SSMS 2011 | UC Santa Barbara | free and open to the public!
Moderated by Professors Christopher McAuley, Black Studies, and Diane Fujino, Asian American Studies
"Ben Barson's Brassroots Democracy is a brilliant historical intervention in early jazz studies…” -Salim Washington"With stunning originality, Benjamin Barson reveals a new revolutionary genealogy of jazz, based in the popular struggles of Haiti, Mexico, and the plantation regions of the American South. Don't miss this bold musical history from below. There is no other book like it." -Marcus Rediker
Brassroots Democracy recasts the birth of jazz, unearthing vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to reveal how early jazz was inextricably tied to the mass mobilization of freedpeople during Reconstruction and the decades that followed. This work traces the impact of Haitian culture in New Orleans and its legacy in movements for liberation.
Benjamin Barson is a saxophonist, historian, radical educator, organizer, and assistant professor of music at Bucknell University. He recently completed a Fulbright Garcia-Robles fellowship at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California in Mexicali, and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Africana Studies & Research Center. He performed with the Afro Yaqui Music Collective, when the group was named Pittsburgh’s “Best Jazz Band” (2018) by Pittsburgh City Paper readers. Barson works closely with Ecosocialist Horizons, inspired by Black power activist Russell Maroon Shoatz.
Sponsored by the Departments of Black Studies and Asian American Studies, and the Cedric J. and Elizabeth P. Robinson Archives, at UC Santa Barbara
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Plus, Building Solidarity Through Artistic Activism: A Multimedia Concert and Artist Talk With Gizelxanath Rodriguez And Benjamin Barson
Tuesday, May 27 | 6:00 PM | Multicultural Center Theater | free and open to the public!
