AF AMER 108Jazz and Political Imagination
African American Studies · 4 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)
How has jazz come to symbolize so many different political tendencies—freedom and democratic values, threat to order and civil society, possibility of integration and racial harmony, Black liberation and nationalism, conservatism, surrealism, socialism, etc., throughout 20th century? What about jazz enables people to read their political aspirations and hopes in what is primarily instrumental, improvised music? Exploration of history of ideas about jazz, specifically how writers, activists, movements, and musicians understood politics of jazz. Exploration of political imaginations—here and abroad—in particular in jazz and question of freedom—social freedom, political freedom, cultural, and artistic freedom.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
- Spring 2026
- Spring 2027
Scheduled, not typical — from UCLA’s Schedule of Classes, which publishes Fall 2025 through Spring 2027 and nothing before it.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.