Join us in-person for a special lecture by Dr. Bilal “Butch” Ware, historian of Africa and Islam, and Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Abstract by Dr. Ware:
Sixty years ago Amiri Baraka—formerly LeRoi Jones—articulated a theory of Black music and culture rooted in African and Black Muslim and cultural nationalist metaphysics. In his classic work Blues People, the late Baraka traced a story of sacred creativity emerging from African wellsprings channeled through the struggle and brutality of American slavery and racial oppression. It has become a classic work of literary criticism and Black social theory.

The art of Jamal Cyrus demands a similarly serious critical analytical engagement. The assassination of Malcolm X shaped Baraka’s work in profound ways, and Jamal Cyrus’ most stunning work, Lights from the Garden, enters into ancestral communion in meditation on this trauma. It is—in reductive summary—a Muslim pulpit or minbar made from the kinds of chairs that littered the floor of the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm was martyred, and held together by what appear to be ballistic rods tracing the paths of the bullets that filled the room on that fateful afternoon.

Cyrus’ art, while visually evocative of the musical and cultural landscape which shaped Baraka and an earlier generation of black thinkers and creatives, nonetheless works in unique visual and experiential registers well beyond the literary and poetic. And it contains a powerful engagement with the artistic and cultural legacies unforeseen by those earlier generations. Hip-Hop music and culture in particular provide a powerful lens through which Cyrus creatively engages an ever evolving Black expressive and spiritual tradition. In this lecture, I will try to provide—as a historian of African, African-American, and Islamic culture—some relevant context to help center the sacred struggle for metaphysical, social, and cultural liberation in the work of this talented visionary.

Dr. Bilal “Butch” Ware is Associate Professor, Department of History, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research spans the last thousand years, centering on West Africa, while reaching into the Mediterranean lands of Islam and the Atlantic worlds of the African Diaspora. Prior to USCB, Dr. Ware has taught at University of Michigan and Northwestern University. His work aims to confront and dispel Western misconceptions about Islam. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

This event is on site and in-person. All guests will be required to provide proof of vaccination and wear a mask.