Drawing on her longterm study of Zulu song and dance, Meintjes revisits instances of ngoma vocal performance in order to explore the idea of breath and aesthetic vitality foregrounded in popular political expression in the USA during the global turbulence of the last two and a half years.

Louise Meintjes has worked as an ethnographer in Johannesburg and rural KwaZulu-Natal for three decades, authoring Sound of Africa!: Making Music in a South African Studio (Duke UP, 2003), and Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid (Duke UP 2017) which won the Gregory Bateson and Alan Merriam prizes. She is the Marcello Lotti Professor of Music and Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, and Chair of the Department of Cultural Anthropology.

The Center for Cultural Studies hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work by faculty and visitors. We gather at 12:00 PM, with presentations beginning at 12:15 PM.

Staff assistance is provided by The Humanities Institute.