Austin T. Richey is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. His dissertation research is based in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, where he is exploring the resonances between diasporic African musical, dance, and visual arts and Detroit-specific musical genres, such as Motown and techno. Richey has published original research in African Music and Opioid Aesthetics: Expressive Culture in an Age of Addiction, as well as publicly-oriented research and writing for the PBS Digital Studios program Sound Field. Support for his work has come from the Frederick Douglass Institute, the Society for American Music, and the Presser Foundation. Richey is an active musician in the New York and Detroit area, and is co-founder of Serevende Mbira and Sansifanyi Drum and Dance Company.
Richey’s public humanities project, The Detroit Rhythm Project, connects young musicians with musical mentors and community leaders who call Detroit’s North End neighborhood home. Further, this project positions the North End as a crucial space of black American musical expression at home and abroad, and considers the impact of neighborhood residents and performers such as John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, P-Funk, Drexciya, Dej Loaf, and Onyx Ashanti.
