{"id":2413,"date":"2017-10-30T20:56:59","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T01:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=2413"},"modified":"2017-10-30T20:56:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T01:56:59","slug":"diversity-at-st-olaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2017\/10\/30\/diversity-at-st-olaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity at St Olaf. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

As I was perusing the Manitou Messenger archives, I stumbled upon a very provocative and passionate article written by first-year student Catherine Mckenzie in the year 1989. \u00a0In her article, entitled \u201c<\/span>Music department needs diversity,\u201d Mckenzie decries the lack of representation among music students and professors at St. Olaf, as well as the conspicuous absence of a jazz music degree program. \u00a0She feels that, as a music student of color, she has no role models to look up to and no way to learn about her cultural heritage.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pondering Mckenzie\u2019s words, I can\u2019t help but feel that nothing has changed since 1989. \u00a0There is still no jazz program. \u00a0There are still astonishingly few music professors of color. \u00a0There is still no one to teach students like Catherine Mckenzie about their musical and cultural heritage. \u00a0Mckenzie, writing in 1989, might just as well be describing the college I attend today. \u00a0Despite the many outraged cries for help from diverse members of the student body, St. Olaf remains a bastion of whiteness and privilege.<\/p>\n

\n

“It would benefit all to see how diverse the music field is becoming”<\/p>\n

-Catherine Mckenzie<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite the egregious lack of representation among students and faculty,\u00a0<\/span>the college does present a wide array of music by black artists in its collections of audio LPs and CDs. \u00a0In Mckenzie\u2019s article, she lists several artists of color who have inspired her and paved the way for other artists, including Jessye Norman and W<\/span>ynton Marsalis. \u00a0Both are represented in the collections at Halvorson.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this way, it seems as though St.\u00a0<\/span>Olaf\u00a0<\/span>College, like white America as a whole, at once embraces black art and distances itself from that art\u2019s creators. \u00a0There is black music in our record bins and there are black spirituals on our concert programs, but are there black students at our desks? \u00a0Black professors\u00a0<\/span>behind our lecterns? \u00a0Celebrating great a<\/span>rtists like Norman and Marsalis is a good place to start, surely, but St. Olaf has a long way to go before it can truly call itself a diverse institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/span><\/p>\n

Marsalis, et al. \u201cWynton Marsalis Plays Handel, Purcell, Torelli, Fasch, Molter.\u201d \u00a0New York, CBS Record Masterworks, 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mckenzie, Catherine. \u201cMusic department needs diversity.\u201d <\/span>Manitou Messenger<\/span><\/i>, 28 Apr. 1989. <\/span><\/p>\n

Weber, et al. \u201cEuryanthe: [Romantic Opera in Three Acts. Libretto by Helmina Von Chezy].\u201d Angel Records, 1975. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was perusing the Manitou Messenger archives, I stumbled upon a very provocative and passionate article written by first-year student Catherine Mckenzie in the year 1989. \u00a0In her article, entitled \u201cMusic department needs diversity,\u201d Mckenzie decries the lack of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-CV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2419,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413\/revisions\/2419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}