Author: Maya Cunningham

Maya Cunningham is an ethnomusicologist, an Africanist/African Americanist scholar and an artist/activist. She is completing a Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Afro American studies with a concentration in ethnomusicology. Cunningham received a master's in Afro-American studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; a master's in ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland, College Park; a master's in jazz performance from Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College; and a  bachelor of music in jazz studies from Howard University. Her research focus is on African/African American identity and traditional Black music forms, as well as culturally responsive music education for African American students. In 2017, she launched Ethnomusicology In Action to advance heritage education about Afro descendant expressive culture and history.

The Sound World of Harriet Tubman

In spring 2019, I went on a trip to the birthplace of Harriet Tubman. The experience of learning Tubman’s story set me on the trajectory to be able to explore the songs she sang, and the sound world in which she lived, so that we can better understand her life.

This essay is a sound collage and discussion of the early African American music culture that molded one of our most prolific ancestors.