Join Nia I’man Smith for a lively conversation exploring the use of John Coltrane’s image and music in Spike Lee’s classic film, Mo’ Better Blues (1990). A constant presence throughout the film, we’ll discuss how Lee invokes Coltrane in both sight and sound to honor his cultural and musical legacy.

September 3| 6 pm IU Archives of African American Music and Culture

Nia I'man Smith is an interdisciplinary Black music scholar in training and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research interests include acts of ancestor veneration within Black music, Black-owned record stores as sites of cultural preservation, and Black women’s practices of vinyl preservation. Her research exploring ancestor veneration in Black music has been presented at the American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, the IU Institute for Advanced Study, the 2019 MoPOP Pop Conference, the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University Newark, and the Juneteenth Mbongi Collective. She holds an M.S. Ed. in Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education and a B.A. in Afro-American Studies from Howard University. Nia, under the alias dj ann charles, is the creator and host of SONIC BLACKNUSS RADIO, a bimonthly curation of Black music across time and space that airs on WFHB, a volunteer-powered, community radio station in Bloomington, IN. She is the proud daughter of Linda Ann Smith and Tony Smith, and the eternally loved great-niece of Essie Nealy Manning.

RSVP