Sketch by Brenton Mixon (please do not reproduce or post image without permission)

Today, on what would have been the 87^th birthday of Miles Dewey Davis, III, one of the greatest artists and deep thinkers of the 20^th century, I found myself reflecting on the legacy of his music and its importance for those of us in the field of Black Studies.  Chalk it up to the positive vibes of “commencement season,” but this time of the year frequently puts me in reflection mode.    Something about the rituals of final exercises at the University of Virginia, particularly watching young people of African descent celebrate their journeys with their families and the community of elders who’ve supported them over the years, reinforces in my mind the importance of ensuring that our students, particularly African American and African Studies majors, understand Black Studies’ connection to a much larger political project and humanistic enterprise.

Simply put, Black Studies is about more than compiling information on the latest manifestations of the “Negro problem”; it also entails contemplative engagement with the marvelous, a reckoning with the life courage of Harriet Tubman, the wisdom of Du Bois, the unwavering humanism of King, the radical vision of Ella Jo Baker, the c-notes of Louis Armstrong, the plaintive cries of Coltrane’s horns, and the sacrifices of the millions whose blood, sweat, and tears have and continue to contribute to the black liberation struggle.

If we the people who are darker than blue are to reach higher ground, then we must be knowledgeable of and conversant with the best of our traditions.

Thoughts about the best of our traditions and the marvelousness of our experiences (then and now) guided me as I prepared two of my students’ graduation gifts: a flash drive containing a small sampling (4GB) of my music library.  As some might be well aware, over the past three years I’ve taught several music-oriented courses, including “The Sounds of Blackness,” which this semester had an enrollment of 146.  When putting together the music, three questions guided my selections: What will the students enjoy?  Which particular songs best represent our class experiences? And what do my students NEED to know?

Expectedly, the genres of music ran the gamut, from the soul of Aretha Franklin to the knee-deep funk of Parliament to the revolutionary tomes of Nina Simone.

In my selections, Miles Davis was well represented not just because he’s my favorite jazz musician but because his career and his disciplined pursuit of artistic excellence illuminate so many of the themes covered in my AAS classes: the elasticity and life-sustaining energy of black culture, the importance of ancestral remembrance and intergenerational dialogue, the power and complexity of language, the strength of community, and the interconnectedness between the sacred and the secular.

More than twenty-two years have passed since Miles entered the ancestral realm but the power of his legacy remains quite palpable.  Moreover, his life, though full of complexities and contradictions, still has much to teach us.

To the graduating class of 2013, I hope you take a little bit of Miles on your journey.  Look forward and embrace the possibilities of the future, but never hesitate to rely on the wisdom of your ancestors.  Remained anchored in the beautiful traditions of Black Studies and always take time to appreciate the marvelous that is within and around you.

Words can’t begin to express how much I appreciated teaching you and learning from you.

Congratulations on completing an important phase in your life’s journey!

Jared Brown, Class of 2013

Over the past several years, the University of Virginia has witnessed a significant dip in African American undergraduate enrollment.  Thanks in large part to a coalition of committed students, faculty, and administrators, African Americans constituted 12% of the undergraduate population at UVA in 1990. Today, that percentage stands at 6.5%.  Two students–Lauren Colemen (AAS and English double major) and Elizabeth Webb (recent grad from the Department of Art) recently put together a short video in which they reflect on the current issue of race and the politics of enrollment.

Kevin Everson and Claudrena Harold will be screening their short film, “Sugarcoated Arsenic” in the South Lawn Auditorium (Nau Hall 101) on March 7th at 5:30 p.m. .  “Sugarcoated Arsenic” is a cinematic exploration of African American intellectual, social, and political life at the University of Virginia during the 1970s.   Starring Erin Stewart as Vivian Verdell Gordon (the director of UVA’s Black Studies program between 1975 and 1980), the film tells the story of African American students and faculty who through their public and private gestures created a vibrant community built on intellectual exchange, self-critique, and human warmth.  

What Sarajanee Octavia Davis provided the University of Virginia during her tenure as president of the Black Student Alliance (2010-2012) was not just an exemplary model of student leadership and academic excellence, but also flesh and blood evidence that the will of the ancestors will prevail…that before time is out WE WILL WIN.  Singling out any student—former or current—for praise is always dangerous business, but the Black Fire film/the Black Fire project would not exist if not for her.  And Lord knows, these past two years of my life would be qualitatively different.

Long before the Arts-In-Action Grant, long before the filming of “Black Fire,”  Sarajanee alerted me to the existence of the administrative files of the Black Student Alliance and help facilitate my access to probably some of the most important and well-kept records of the African American experience at UVA.

Over the course of the next year and a half, we would explore and engage the story of the black student experience at UVA during the 1970.  Her exploration culminated in a provocative, cogently argued, and beautifully written thesis (107 pages) on the history of student activism at UVA, Howard, Columbia, and San Francisco State.  To read her thesis is to be reminded of not just the singularity of her intellectual voice, but also of the importance of intergenerational transmission of knowledge.

“Never let the spirits die,” so says our dearly departed brother Gil Scott-Heron.

One way in which we carry out his dictate is through critical engagement with the young and never forgetting that the intergenerational transmission of the wisdom of our ancestors and elders is never a one-directional project…

In the weeks leading up to the filming of “Black Fire,” I started every morning with Robert Glasper’s “Always Shine,” which features the brilliant Lupe Fiasco.  The song always conjured up thoughts of Vivian Gordon, as well as Sarajanee. In fact, there’s there’s a line in the song that speaks to our “three-the-hard” way rendezvous:

this some deep shit

it’s my me shit

impersonating we shit

vicariously in every rap I speak with

I hope you’re speak it for me

If I’m every speechless

Cause I’mma be you

Even though you’re not here to be with…

Filming “Black Fire” in October was not only physically taxing but it was an emotional chore. When I’d think on the life of Vivian Gordan and all efforts to erase the memory of her presence at UVA, I’d lose it…but then I’d remember that she lived in us, through us, and now with us.

Because of Sarajanee Davis, I was afforded that kind of clarity.

thank you and happy birthday…

Black Student Alliance Members Planning for Black Culture Week, 1979

“This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of…annihilation: dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives: truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless calvaries: and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a non-conforming minority.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Transformed Nonconformist, 1954

Armstead Robinson, Founding Director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia

Black Studies is Armstead Robinson’s relentless pursuit of academic excellence,  Vivian Gordon’s dedicated service,Black Voices’ joyous shots, Houston Baker’s rhetorical mastery, Joseph Washington’s theological probing, the Black Student Alliance’s refusal to accept the dictates and practices of white supremacy, Reginald Butler’s unflinching commitment to the epistemological power of the local, Kevin Everson’s unerring eye…Black Studies is ETERNAL. 

UVA Hospital Worker, 1970s

On this fourth day of Kwanzaa, it seems only fitting to turn our attention to one of the most important documents emerging out of African Americans’ collective struggle for economic justice at the University of Virginia: the Muddy Floor Report. It’s a lengthy but quite informative analysis of the racial politics of UVA’s occupational structure.

Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, An Examination of the University’s Minority Classified Staff (The Muddy Floor Report), June 1996

African American Students at the University of Virginia, circa 1970s; Photo Courtesy of Special Collections Library, UVA

Set of “Black Fire” film, October 2012, Courtesy of Magdeldin Hamid 

1989 Conference on Civil Rights Studies