It’s Midday on Music and today we explore music as a window into Muslim Culture, and the creative work of Muslim women, who are being celebrated in a series at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore this season called Nisa’a Women. My guests this afternoon are Sudanese singer Alsarah and her band The Nubatones. The group is in town as the second installment in the Nisa’a Women series. They are conducting workshops at local schools, they’ll be at a community potluck for refugee and immigrant communities and they will give a concert at the Creative Alliance tomorrow night.
Later on, a discussion about the growing popularity of Contemporary African music. Despite Hip Hop and Afrobeats artists dominating music charts around the world, they were not well represented at this year’s Grammy awards. Stephanie Shonekan, University of Missouri Associate Professor of Black Studies and Ethnomusicologist, joins us on the telephone to discuss who wins awards, who doesn’t and why.
