The author, musician, and Grammy Award-winner Elijah Wald will be visiting campus on Monday October 7 and giving a public lecture that evening at 7:30 pm in Smith Memorial Hall, room 220. Wald has a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, but he is primarily known as a public scholar who has written several acclaimed books, including Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues (Amistad, 2004), How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music (Oxford, 2009), and Talkin 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap (Oxford, 2012).
On October 7th, he will be speaking about his new book Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories (Hachette, 2024). This book has already garnered praise from scholars such as Daphne Brooks and (UIUC's own) Kimberley Mack and the blues guitarist and singer Taj Mahal. I hope that you will be able to join us for Wald's talk.