Music, history intersect in new exhibit

CEDAR RAPIDS - From the musical traditions brought by slaves from West Africa to the Americas to modern hip-hop culture, the history of African-American music is intricately linked to the story of America.

That's the message behind a new yearlong exhibit opening Saturday at the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids.

'Look at any big shift in African-American history, and you can see a soundtrack that goes along with it,” said museum education assistant Krystal Gladden. 'We're actually going to be teaching African-American history and United States history by looking at the music.”

The exhibit will be interactive, with videos, instruments for visitors to play and iPod listening stations with samples of music from different eras. It will be on display from Saturday through next March 28 and is meant to complement the museum's permanent exhibit on Iowa's African-American history.

For the exhibit, the museum commissioned two original works of art by Iowa artists Gary Kelley and Kamar Essex.

Kelley's artwork is a three-dimensional depiction of a jazz club scene.

Museum curator Brianna Wright said the art is meant to help people engage with the content in the exhibit.

'It's an immersive way of helping people understand that jazz was more than just music, it was a culture,” she said. 'We're using the jazz club scene to discuss segregation.”

In the piece, all the performers on stage are black, while audience members are white.

Essex's piece is a graffiti-style mural featuring portraits of different hip-hop icons throughout the genre's evolution. Each panel features a slightly different style of graffiti to match the icon's era, starting with Rev Run of Run DMC and ending with a portrait of rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Visitors to the exhibit will be able to add their own graffiti messages next to Essex's art.

'This is still an evolving genre of music, and you can see that evolution in front of you with this piece,” Gladden said. 'People don't always make connections between the music they enjoy and how this music was created. Especially younger generations - they think their music is so separate from what came before. They don't always know what that link is.”

She said the exhibit will explore the evolution of African-American music and culture over 400 years.

'Looking at different genres of music to different times, you can hear how one influences the other,” Gladden said. 'You can relate blues music to sharecropping and the civil rights movement to gospel music.”

All those connections are integral to understanding American history, Wright said. 'Music doesn't stand alone. Music is connected to culture and history.”

What: 'Behind the Beat”

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Light refreshments and children's activities will accompany the opening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Open Monday through Saturday weekly.

Where: African American Museum of Iowa, 55 12th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids

Cost: Free on opening day. Normal admission is $2.50 to $5; free for children under 5.

More information: Blackiowa.org

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