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September 27, 2025
Face the Music
Saturday, September 27th
Seattle Art Museum
For teachers & teaching artists of the greater Seattle area. Offered as part of The Creative Advantage Institute's The Arts are The Antidote. Lunch and free parking included. Teachers can get 5 clock hours from the full day of events.
Join The Rhapsody Project's co-founder, Joe Seamons, and author and ethnomusicologist Daniel Atkinson to discover the hidden story of one of America's first Black crossover superstars, George "Nash" Walker. Using Walker's story as a jumping off point, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how racism functions in the United States, as well as tools for teaching music and history to instill that understanding.
The musical history of the U.S. constitutes a unique and powerful lens for deepening our grasp of how culture has sometimes confronted—but too often reinforced—oppressive systems that terrorize historically disenfranchised communities. With an emphasis on artists who were nonconformists, women and people of the African diaspora, each week of this workshop and discussion group explores stories about American culture and artists. Each story or artist profile will serve to ground participants in historical knowledge as we engage in facilitated, constructive discussions about how participants can use their knowledge and power to effect positive change in their families, workplaces, and communities.
About the Facilitators
Ethnomusicologist Dr. Daniel E. Atkinson offers a fresh take on the lives and accomplishments of the “Vanguard Generation” of Afro-Americans who leveraged Black cultural products for profit and prestige between the close of the Civil War and the start of World War I. Gathered from recently digitized newsprint, recordings, film and other media from the beginning of the modern era for the forthcoming book, The Rediscovery of George “Nash” Walker: The Price of Black Stardom in Jim Crow America, the contextual depth of this data enriches the historical record with previously lacking nuance that exemplifies the Black experience, the artistic hamster wheel of ubiquitous Black cultural influence, and perpetual secondary status of Black people in the United States.
Joe Seamons is a musician and educator based in Seattle and dedicated to helping people connect with their heritage through music and storytelling. As co-founder of The Rhapsody Project, he builds communities that serve and center young people while establishing cultural equity. Alongside non-profit partners Totem Star and Red Eagle Soaring, Joe helped establish The Station Space, a new youth arts hub. As part of the leadership team of Black & Tan Hall, Joe has worked since 2016 to establish the Black-led, multi-cultural cooperative that now stewards a 3,000 square foot performance venue in South Seattle.
