An interdisciplinary research center supporting collaborative projects that address gender, race, sexuality, and other intersecting forms of global inequality.
Celebrating 50 Years of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life
A daylong symposium bringing together scholars, critics, musicians, and composers to reflect on the album’s insights into life in the wake of civil rights and decolonial movements across the African world, and on the legacies of Wonder’s hopeful vision of a future grounded in love and shared humanity.
Following the symposium, CSSD is proud to co-present, along with Pique-nique and Boom Collective, a concert featuring musician Elliott Skinner. Organized as part of Pique-nique’s “Take Two” series, the concert will feature a listening session of Wonder’s album followed by a reinterpretation by Skinner. Blending soul, blues, folk, and rock, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Skinner creates music that combines atmospheric vocals and rich instrumentation with an emphasis on personal storytelling. His work draws from the Black Radical Music Tradition, a lineage of Black artists who have used music to explore identity, confront social realities, and imagine new possibilities for freedom.
