On May 6th, Dr. Ilana Webster Kogen from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London will discuss Ethiopian music and blackness in Israel.
Tuesday, May 6, 202510:00 AM - 11:00 AM (Pacific Time)Webinar
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Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.
About the Book & Talk
In the thirty years since their immigration from Ethiopia to the State of Israel, Ethiopian-Israelis have put music at the center of communal and public life, using it alternatingly as a mechanism of protest and as appeal for integration. Ethiopian music develops in quiet corners of urban Israel as the most prominent advocate for equality, and the Israeli-born generation is creating new musical styles that negotiate the terms of blackness outside of Africa. For the first time, this book examines in detail those new genres of Ethiopian-Israeli music, including Ethiopian-Israeli hip-hop, Ethio-soul performed across Europe, and eskesta dance projects at the center of national festivals. This book argues that in a climate where Ethiopian-Israelis fight for recognition of their contribution to society, musical style often takes the place of political speech, and musicians take on outsize roles as cultural critics. From their perch in Tel Aviv, Ethiopian-Israeli musicians use musical style to critique a social hierarchy that affects life for everyone in Israel/Palestine. Citizen Azmari: Making Ethiopian Music in Tel Aviv can be purchased here.
About the Featured Speaker
Dr. Ilana Webster-Kogen is an ethnomusicologist by training, specializing in music, diaspora, and ethnicity in the urban Middle East. Her work focuses on music, diaspora and ethnicity in the urban Middle East. Her first book, Citizen Azmari: Making Ethiopian Music in Tel Aviv, was published in 2018 by Wesleyan University Press, for which she conducted fieldwork in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem among Ethiopian immigrants and newer Eritrean asylum seekers. The book won the Society for Ethnomusicology's Jewish Music section publication prize in 2019. Ilana's academic writing has appeared in Ethnomusicology Forum, African and Black Diaspora, and the Journal of African Cultural Studies.
At the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London, Ilana teaches classes on Jewish and Middle Eastern music, hip hop, and critical/cultural theory. In 2018, she became a Senior Fellow of the HEA, and in 2019, she became the Associate Director for Student Experience and Outcomes. She was appointed the Joe Loss Lecturer in Jewish Music in 2014, becoming Senior Lecturer in 2019, and works closely with the Jewish Music Institute (JMI) who support her position.
DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.
Sponsor(s): UCLA Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.