Ep 34: The Harlem Renaissance: Early 20th Century Afro-Modernism

Ep 37: Juneteenth: Freedom Deferred, Freedom Declared, Freedom Demanded

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress." — Frederick Douglass Juneteenth is not merely a holiday. It is not merely a date on a calendar, a festival, a parade, or a cookout. Juneteenth is a historical mirror. It asks us to look honestly at America's promises and America's contradictions, to remember both the wounds and the wonders of the American experiment. In this special episode, Dr. Reiland Rabaka traces the origins of Juneteenth, from June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to announce what enslaved people in Texas had been denied for more than two years, to the decades of organizing by activists, educators, churches, and communities that finally secured federal recognition in 2021. At the center of it all is one of democracy's enduring lessons: freedom must not only be announced. It must be enforced. It must be protected. It must be practiced. Dr. Rabaka situates Juneteenth within the broader sweep of African American democratic history, pushing back against narratives that reduce the era of slavery to suffering alone. Enslaved and freed African Americans were not passive recipients of freedom. They were active architects of a more democratic society, challenging slavery through rebellion, cultural preservation, religious innovation, and everyday acts of resistance. During Reconstruction, Black men voted, Black leaders held public office, Black communities built schools and newspapers and mutual aid societies, and Black citizens participated in the most significant democratic experiment in American history. Their contributions, Dr. Rabaka insists, belong not only to Black history. They belong to American history. They belong to the history of democracy itself. No discussion of Juneteenth is complete without Frederick Douglass, and Dr. Rabaka gives his 1852 masterpiece, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, the close reading it deserves. Douglass did not reject American ideals. He challenged Americans to honor them. He did not condemn liberty. He exposed hypocrisy. The speech functions like a mirror, forcing the nation to see the gap between its national rhetoric and its social reality, and it remains, Dr. Rabaka argues, one of the most profound and relevant democratic documents ever written. Alongside Douglass, the episode honors Opal Lee, the educator and activist known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, whose decades of tireless organizing remind us that ordinary people change history. The episode closes with Dr. Rabaka's original tone poem, "The News Came Late" — a multi-voiced mosaic drawn from ancestral wisdom, composed as a homage to the people who endured the Middle Passage, survived 250 years of enslavement, and still kept faith with the future. It is a poem about hands planting and hands praying, about hope hiding inside mothers teaching children the names of stars, about a flame passed carefully from generation to generation. A specially curated Juneteenth commemoration playlist accompanies this episode. LEARN MORE AND EXPLORE * Wikipedia: Juneteenth [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth] * Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture: Juneteenth [https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/moments/juneteenth] * Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: Juneteenth [https://www.gilderlehrman.org/historical-holidays/juneteenth] * PBS NewsHour Classroom: History of Juneteenth and Why It Became a National Holiday [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/classroom/lesson-plans/2025/06/lesson-plan-history-of-juneteenth-and-why-its-set-to-become-a-national-holiday] * Britannica: Juneteenth [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Juneteenth] News and Articles * Is Juneteenth Still a Federal Holiday? What Trump Changed [https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/juneteenth-still-federal-holiday-trump-142830019.html] (USA Today / Yahoo News, June 2026) * Freedom Summer 2026: Activists Launch Juneteenth Surge [https://www.theroot.com/exclusive-from-selma-to-harlem-activists-launch-massi-2000107797] (The Root, May 2026) * Juneteenth in Fort Worth: Inside the City's Black-Owned Spaces Building on Freedom [https://www.essence.com/uncategorized/fort-worth-juneteenth-black-community-building-freedom/] (Essence, June 2026) * Top Juneteenth Festivals and Events Across the U.S. in 2026 [https://www.ebony.com/celebrate-juneteenth-festivals-concerts-culture-events/colorado] (EBONY, June 2026) Juneteenth Playlist Intro by Dr. Reiland Rabaka Juneteenth is not only a historical commemoration; it is also a musical archive. Long before freedom was legally recognized, it was imagined, sung, prayed, whispered, shouted, and remembered in song. Across the centuries, African American music has served as a living record of struggle and survival, preserving histories that official narratives often ignored or distorted. Spirituals carried coded messages of hope and liberation. The blues transformed sorrow into testimony. Jazz improvised new possibilities for freedom. Gospel joined personal faith to collective struggle. Soul and funk voiced demands for dignity and self-determination. Reggae internationalized the language of liberation, while rap chronicled the unfinished journey toward justice and democracy. This playlist traces a long freedom tradition from enslavement and emancipation through Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and contemporary struggles for racial justice. Together, these songs remind us that music is more than entertainment. It is memory. It is protest. It is prophecy. It is a democratic practice through which ordinary people narrate their lives and imagine more just futures. These selections illuminate the enduring significance of Juneteenth by revealing how artists across generations transformed suffering into creativity, resistance into rhythm, and hope into collective action. They invite us to hear freedom not as a destination already reached, but as an ongoing journey carried forward in song. Listen to the Juneteenth playlist on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/302XzciJYUXTBoRilCIy6T?si=a6ae2aac5cb342ab] 1. Go Down, Moses, Traditional Spiritual One of the most powerful spirituals to emerge from the era of enslavement, this song links the biblical Exodus story to Black aspirations for liberation. Enslaved Africans transformed sacred narrative into a coded language of resistance, making freedom both a spiritual promise and a political dream. 2. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, Traditional Spiritual This beloved spiritual expresses both sorrow and hope, reflecting the emotional complexity of life under slavery. Its imagery of movement and deliverance resonates deeply with the long struggle that Juneteenth commemorates. 3. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Traditional Spiritual A haunting meditation on separation, displacement, and longing, the song reflects the devastating family disruptions produced by slavery. It reminds listeners that emancipation was also about restoring humanity, kinship, and belonging. 4. Lift Every Voice and Sing, James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson (1900) Often called the Black National Anthem, this enduring hymn links emancipation to citizenship, perseverance, faith, and democratic aspiration. Its themes of remembrance and hope make it one of the most important musical expressions of African American historical memory. 5. Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday (1939) This landmark recording confronts the racial terror that followed Reconstruction. By exposing the brutality of lynching, Holiday reminds us that emancipation did not immediately secure justice, equality, or safety for African Americans. 6. Come Sunday, Duke Ellington (1943) Part of Ellington's monumental Black, Brown and Beige suite, this composition honors African American spiritual traditions and their role in sustaining dignity, faith, and cultural survival through centuries of oppression and resistance. 7. Move On Up a Little Higher, Mahalia Jackson (1947) A gospel masterpiece rooted in the Black sacred tradition, Jackson's recording captures the spiritual determination that sustained generations from slavery through the modern freedom struggle. It expresses both earthly perseverance and transcendent hope. 8. Oh, Freedom, Odetta (1956) Rooted in the experiences of formerly enslaved African Americans after emancipation, this freedom song bridges Juneteenth and the Civil Rights Movement. Odetta's powerful interpretation preserves the moral courage and democratic aspirations of those who struggled to transform freedom declared into freedom lived. 9. A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke (1964) One of the defining freedom songs of modern America, Cooke's masterpiece captures both suffering and hope. Its emotional depth echoes the aspirations of generations who struggled to transform emancipation into full citizenship and democratic inclusion. 10. Mississippi Goddam, Nina Simone (1964) Simone's searing protest song reminds listeners that legal freedom alone does not guarantee justice. Her music links the long history of Black resistance to the continuing demand for democratic transformation and human dignity. 11. Freedom Highway, The Staple Singers (1965) Written during the Civil Rights Movement, this song connects nineteenth-century emancipation struggles to twentieth-century movements for voting rights and equality. It celebrates collective action, courage, and democratic participation. 12. Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud, James Brown (1968) This anthem of Black self-determination and cultural affirmation reflects the legacy of emancipation in a later era. Brown's declaration of dignity, self-respect, and collective pride helped redefine freedom for a new generation. 13. Freedom, Richie Havens (1969) Made famous through Havens's unforgettable Woodstock performance, this song transforms a spiritual refrain into a universal anthem of liberation. It stands at the crossroads of the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, antiwar activism, and global freedom struggles. 14. What's Going On?, Marvin Gaye (1971) Marvin Gaye expands the meaning of freedom beyond emancipation alone, addressing war, poverty, racial inequality, and social fragmentation. The song asks what democratic responsibility requires in a nation still struggling to fulfill its ideals. 15. Living for the City, Stevie Wonder (1973) One of the most powerful musical narratives of post-Civil Rights Black America, Wonder's song traces the effects of structural racism, economic inequality, and urban hardship. It reminds listeners that emancipation was the beginning, not the end, of the struggle for justice. 16. Redemption Song, Bob Marley and the Wailers (1980) Marley's meditation on liberation connects African diasporic struggles across national boundaries. The song underscores the global significance of freedom movements and the continuing work of emancipation throughout the African world. 17. Fight the Power, Public Enemy (1989) A defining statement of rap political consciousness, this track challenges dominant narratives and demands historical accountability. It extends the democratic critiques voiced by Frederick Douglass into the late twentieth century. 18. Keep Ya Head Up, Tupac Shakur (1993) This song broadens discussions of freedom by emphasizing dignity, resilience, care, and community responsibility. It reflects the continuing struggle to realize justice not only in institutions but also in everyday life. 19. Glory, Common and John Legend (2014) Created for the film Selma, this song bridges historical and contemporary freedom movements. It demonstrates how the memory of emancipation and the Civil Rights Movement continues to inspire new generations of activists and artists. 20. Alright, Kendrick Lamar (2015) Widely embraced as a contemporary anthem of resilience and hope, the song speaks to the persistence of racial inequality while affirming collective endurance. It echoes Juneteenth's central lesson that hope survives even amid hardship and struggle. 21. Freedom, Beyoncé featuring Kendrick Lamar (2016) Drawing upon spiritual, blues, gospel, and contemporary Black musical traditions, this powerful anthem embodies the continuing quest for freedom, self-determination, and collective empowerment. It links historical memory to present-day movements for justice. 22. Letter to the Free, Common (2016) Written for the documentary 13th, the song explores the relationship between slavery, incarceration, and contemporary systems of inequality. It encourages listeners to think critically about freedom's unfinished work in the twenty-first century. 23. This Is America, Childish Gambino (2018) A provocative reflection on race, violence, spectacle, and national identity, this song challenges listeners to confront contradictions within American democracy. It underscores why historical memory remains essential to civic life and democratic renewal. 24. Not Like Us, Kendrick Lamar (2024) More than a rap battle anthem, "Not Like Us" became a cultural event that sparked conversations about authenticity, accountability, community, and cultural ownership. Within the broader tradition of African American public critique, the song can be understood as a contemporary expression of self-definition and communal responsibility, themes that have long animated Black democratic thought.

Ep 36: Love is Love: LGBTQIA+ Liberation Movements and the Long Road to Democracy

Love is love is not sentiment alone. It is a declaration, a demand, a democracy still unfinished. In this episode, Dr. Reiland Rabaka traces the long and defiant arc of LGBTQIA+ liberation movements in America, from the hidden corners of pre-Stonewall queer life to the fury of the 1969 riots, through the grief and militancy of the AIDS crisis, and into today's ongoing battles over transgender rights, bodily autonomy, and human dignity. Throughout, this episode places special emphasis on Black LGBTQIA+ voices, voices too often marginalized even within movements for liberation, because when Black queer people fight for freedom, they expand the very meaning of freedom itself. Music accompanies this journey not merely as entertainment, but as archive and altar. Dr. Rabaka explores disco as one of the great democratic soundscapes of the 20th century, celebrates Sylvester and the prophetic power of house music, and honors the Black feminist intellectual tradition of Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, and the Combahee River Collective. He restores the full complexity of Stonewall, centers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, and traces the cultural explosions that followed, from ballroom houses and chosen families to the courage of ACT UP and the searing poetry of Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam. From the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to contemporary figures like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Janelle Monáe, and Lil Nas X, Dr. Rabaka asks the hard question: is representation enough? He affirms the transformative democratic tradition of Black queer feminism, reminds us that backlash is the predictable companion of democratic progress, and insists that once people begin imagining freedom differently, the old order can never fully restore itself. See all show notes and the "Love is Love" playlist on our website. [https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-36-love-love-lgbtqia-liberation-movements-and-long-road-democracy]

Ep 35: "Black Is Beautiful!": The Black Aesthetic and The Black Arts Movement, 1965-1975

Black is beautiful is not a slogan alone, but a summons, a call to consciousness, a chorus of reclamation rising from a people long told to doubt their own reflection. In this episode, Dr. Reiland Rabaka explores the Black Arts Movement, 1965 to 1975, a decade when art was insurgent and imagination was organized, when poetry marched and music mobilized, when theater testified and painting proclaimed. This was a time when culture did not trail politics. Culture led politics, setting the terms, shaping the language, sounding the future. The story of the Black Arts Movement does not begin in 1965. It begins earlier in the Harlem Renaissance, where Black artists first insisted that Black life was worthy of its own forms, languages, and light. By the 1960s, into the breach left by persistent inequality stepped the Black Power Movement, a call for self-determination, community control, and cultural pride. Alongside it rose the Black Arts Movement, the aesthetic arm of the Black Power Movement. If the Harlem Renaissance asked, "Who are we in modern America?" the Black Arts Movement answered, "We are what we make, and we will make it Black, bold, and beautiful." Dr. Rabaka examines the Black Aesthetic as a constellation of commitments that insisted Black art must emerge from Black experience, speak to Black communities, and serve Black liberation. It rejected the demand to conform to Eurocentric standards of beauty and embraced art for the people's necessity. The Black Aesthetic said: our rhythms are valid, our language is literature, our bodies are sites of knowledge, our communities are audiences and authors alike. It was both critique of a world that devalues Black life and creation of forms that revalue it. See all show notes and the special playlist on our website. [https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-35-black-beautiful-black-aesthetic-and-black-arts-movement-1965-1975]

Ep 34: The Harlem Renaissance: Early 20th Century Afro-Modernism

The Harlem Renaissance was not merely a moment. It was a movement, a meditation, a declaration that Black life, Black art, Black thought, and Black being would no longer be bound by the narrow scripts of a nation unsure of its own democracy. In this episode, Dr. Reiland Rabaka explores the Harlem Renaissance as early 20th century Afro-modernism, a transformative period when Black people dared to ask: Who are we beyond the shadow of slavery? Who are we beyond imposed scripts? Who are we when we name ourselves? The New Negro Movement emerged as both a political and philosophical reorientation. It was not merely about rights, though it demanded them. It was about redefinition, replacing the old Negro (a figure fabricated by white supremacist imagination) with a self-determined subject who would speak, create, think, and act on their own terms. The Harlem Renaissance was the aesthetic and cultural expression of this deeper movement, the New Negro's heartbeat made audible. Dr. Rabaka examines literary Afro-modernism through the work of Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote with the rhythms of the South and captured Black folk life with dignity and depth, Claude McKay, who gave us defiance in verse, and Langston Hughes, who sang the blues on the page and made poetry move like jazz. These writers refused respectability politics and embraced Blackness in all its complexity. See all show notes and The Harlem Renaissance playlist [https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-34-harlem-renaissance-early-20th-century-afro-modernism]

Ep 33: The CAAAS 5-Year Anniversary Episode: Building the Beloved Community at CU Boulder and Beyond, 2021-2026

"Five years rooted in history, five years reaching toward freedom—this is the work, this is the cause." — Dr. Reiland Rabaka In this special anniversary episode of The Cause: Conversations on Music, History, and Democracy, Dr. Reiland Rabaka reflects on the first five years of The Center for African and African American Studies/The CAAAS at the University of Colorado Boulder. What began as a vision has become a dynamic and evolving center grounded in research, artistic expression, and community engagement. This episode traces the origins of the center, from years of advocacy to its founding in 2021, shaped by broader movements for justice and collective action. It highlights the center's core pillars as a research hub, an arts space, and a home for building the Beloved Community. Through these efforts, The CAAAS has cultivated intellectual communities, supported creative work, and created pathways for students, artists, and community members to connect and collaborate. Featuring a powerful interview conducted by KGNU, the episode also explores the impact of a historic $2 million investment from university leadership. This commitment represents not only institutional support, but a shared belief in the center's mission to expand access, foster dialogue, and build bridges across communities. At its heart, this episode is about more than looking back. It is about looking forward. It asks what it means to build institutions that do more than exist, institutions that actively transform. It invites listeners to reflect on the role of Black Studies in shaping a more just and inclusive future, and on the responsibility we all share in that work. As Dr. Rabaka reminds us throughout the episode, the Beloved Community is not an abstract ideal. It is a daily practice rooted in inclusion, creativity, and collective care. See all show notes and articles on The CAAAS on our website [https://www.colorado.edu/center/caaas/podcast/episodes/episode-33-caaas-5-year-anniversary-episode-building-beloved-community-cu-boulder]