Cultural Literacy Through Music
A Live Music Workshop
Program Overview
A high-energy workshop that takes students on a journey from Africa to the present through the sounds and stories of Black music. With live demonstrations, call-and-response, and historical context, students discover how music has carried memory, documented experience, and sparked visions for the future.
This experience meets students where they are. It invites them to listen deeper, understand culture through sound, and see the through line connecting creativity to the music they already know.
What Students
Will Learn
By the end of the workshop, students will understand:
- How music acts as a time capsule of Black history
- The cultural roots of African rhythm and oral tradition
- The evolution of sound from spirituals → blues → jazz → soul → hip-hop
- How music reflects lived experience through slavery, migration, and liberation
- The role of artists in shaping identity, community, and social change
- The throughline connecting Black music to nearly all of American popular music today
Formats
Assembly
- Ideal for large groups
- High-energy performance experience
- 30–45 minutes
Full-Day Residency
- Multiple sessions
- Can include songwriting, lyric analysis, or artist Q&A
- Ideal for arts integration or cultural weeks
About the Presenter
Amari "Rebel" Johnson, PhD, is a musician, filmmaker, and educator with over two decades of experience teaching African American Studies at the primary, secondary, and university levels. He's performed and taught across the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, and South America — using music and research to help communities reconnect with culture, identity, and creative power.
Dr. Johnson holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of Under a Black Star: The Maroon Impulse in New Orleans (Minnesota, 2025).
Book the Workshop
We are excited to share Cultural Literacy Through Music with your school community. Please fill out this form and our team will respond within 48 hours. If you have any questions, you can also reach us at hello@amarirebel.com.