From amy.skjerseth at ucr.edu Tue May 5 10:51:43 2026 From: amy.skjerseth at ucr.edu (Amy Skjerseth) Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 10:51:43 -0700 Subject: [Mus-undergrad-info] Bayz Music Series, Tomorrow @Noon, 5/6: "A Beautiful Fight: Researching Capoeira, Playing with Money" (Esther Viola Kurtz) Message-ID: *2025?2026 Florence Bayz Music Series* *A Beautiful Fight: Researching Capoeira, Playing with Money* Esther Viola Kurtz May 6, 12?12:50pm, ARTS 157 [image: image.png] Dr. Kurtz writes: "In this talk I provide an overview of my book, *A Beautiful Fight: The Racial Politics of **Capoeira in Backland Bahia*. I trace its arguments that capoeira group members cohere community by using sound and movement to produce ax? (life force energy) but that despite this resonant alignment, group members still diverge in their understandings of capoeira?s antiracist politics and spirituality. I then focus on capoeira?s ?money game? as it is played by Mestre Cl?udio and his group, the Angoleiros do Sert?o. I argue that their way of playing with money provides insight into capoeira group economics, revealing how capoeira mestres work both against and within enduring racialized political-economic systems in ways that are deeply relational in nature. This case study also models how I merge methods of critical ethnography, Africana studies, and the holistic study of music and movement." *BIO* Esther Viola Kurtz is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Department of Music and a Faculty Affiliate with the Department of African and African-American Studies and the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research explores African diasporic music-dance practices as sites where practitioners contest injustice and transform their worlds. Her book, A Beautiful Fight: The Racial Politics of Capoeira in Backland Bahia (University of Michigan Press, 2025) is an ethnographic study of Black and white practitioners? interpretations of capoeira?s spirituality and political antiracist potentials. Her new project explores how St. Louis jazz musicians resist racial capitalism and define alternative value systems. Spread the word to your students and friends; Bayz series events are free and open to the public. For more information about this event and the event series, please visit https://events.ucr.edu/event/Esther-Viola-Kurtz?utm_campaign=widget&utm_medium=widget&utm_source=UC+Riverside . See you tomorrow! Amy (Bayz series coordinator) *Dr. Amy Skjerseth* (*she/her*) Assistant Professor of Popular Music University of California, Riverside Book out September 2026: *Preprogrammed: How Electronic Presets Changed Music and Media * PI, "Defying Defaults in Technology and Culture ," UCHRI Multicampus Research Working Group *I sometimes send emails outside of traditional working hours, but I do not expect a response outside of your own.* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 536082 bytes Desc: not available URL: