Thinking Spaces 2022–23: Rashida K. Braggs

This Thinking Spaces session,“Black Women Who Move Jazz Methodologies” with guest Rashida K. Braggs, took place on March 6, 2023.

More About this Talk:

How do you make a book move? Move to depart and return to the diverse homes of Black African diasporic women… move in the word-sound-mood tones of the jazz they perform… move readers to resonate and sense their experiences beyond static pages of academic prose.

In this presentation, Rashida K. Braggs discussed her methodological moves that mix dance ethnography, songwriting, and playwriting in her book-performance in progress on the migrations of black women jazz performers to Paris, France. Braggs guided us through an early chapter where she weaves her material and embodied research on the Malagasy-Senegalese singer MFA Kera and Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo as they first migrate to Paris in 1969 and 1983 respectively.

More About the Speaker:

Rashida K. Braggs is Associate Professor in Africana Studies and a faculty affiliate in Comparative Literature at Williams College. Her book Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music and Migration in Post-World War II Paris investigates the migratory experiences of African American jazz musicians in 1946-1963 Paris. In her current manuscript and accompanying performance project “Move Jazz, Black Woman Move,” she explores how and why black women jazz performers of African descent migrate to and from Paris from 1969-2019.

Rashida K. Braggs is also a scholar-performer who acts, dances, sings, composes music and performs spoken word. Trained in Performance Studies, Communications, Theater Studies, and English, she consistently weaves performance through her pedagogy and scholarship. Jacob’s Pillow, the Williams College Museum of Art, the Tapir gallery and the United Solo Theatre Festival have featured her performances.