A deeply personal and scholarly exploration of how race and ethnicity shape the ways we learn, teach, and experience music.
If Colors Could Be Heard: Narratives About Racial Identity in Music Education is a groundbreaking collection of firsthand accounts by music educators, artists, activists, and students from the Global Majority. These deeply personal narratives explore how race and ethnicity shape experiences in music learning, making, and teaching.
From stories of childhood discovery to reflections on navigating racial identity in the classroom, these voices paint a complex and vivid portrait of music education in the United States. Going beyond a collection of research studies, this book embraces self-reflective storytelling as a legitimate and essential method of inquiry, offering a scholarly mosaic of lived experience.
By centering voices often marginalized in academia, If Colors Could Be Heard challenges dominant narratives and reimagines music education through a lens of equity, identity, and belonging. A must-read for students, educators, and researchers committed to fostering an inclusive and just musical future.
Introduction: Painting Wondrous Tunes with Stories by People of Color
Christopher Cayari, Jason D. Thompson, and Rekha S. Rajan
Section I: Intersectionality
Orientation I: Intersectionality and Music Education: Why Identity Matters,
Especially for People of Color
Christopher Cayari
1. "From minor to Major feelings, I am more than just Stop Asian Hate 20
Alice Tsui
2. In Her Voice: (Re)Visioning Race and Gender in the Music Classroom through
the Lens of Black Feminist Pedagogy
Paula Grissom Broughton
3. Coming Out as Asian: Multiplying Identity and Intersectionality
Christopher Cayari
4. Self-Made?: Representation, Tokenism, and Finding Autonomy as an
Educator
Marcus Moone
5. The Hip-Hop Therapeutic Education of a Single Mother
Terriee Pope
Section II: Forging New Pathways
Orientation II: Forging Cultural Pathways in Music Learning, Making, and
Teaching
Jason D. Thompson and Rekha S. Rajan
6. Searching Somewhere Over the Rainbow for a Home in Choral Music
Education
Dr. Kiernan M. Steiner
7. Teaching Music in Tkaronto: The Relationship Between Indigeneity and Place
of Practice
Joyce Jing Yee Yip and Lee Cheng
8. My Journey and My Music: Breaking the Hegemony of the Music Classroom in
Hong Kong
Chi Ying Lam
9. inVISIBLE: A Journey to (re)claim, (re)embrace, and (re)settle
Shuk-Ki Wong
10. Between the Piano and the Gayageum: From Reversal to Empowerment
Sangmi Kang ()
Section III: Epiphanies
Orientation III: Epiphanies: How Reflection and Realization Influence Our
Musical Experiences
Christopher Cayari
11. SPOTLIGHT
Rekha S. Rajan
12: Giving Myself Permission to be a Musician
Tina Huynh
13: Just look at Anthony!: Searching for identity, teaching music
Anthony Cao
14: Ni de aquí ni de allá: The In-Betweenness of AfroLatinidad
Marjoris Regus
15: Silent No More: A Vietnamese American Adoptee Speaks About Music
Education And Who I Wronged
Kính T. V
Section IV: Triumph and Excellence
Orientation IV: Triumph and Excellence
Jason D. Thompson
17: Through the Looking Glass: An Asian American Music Educators
Counter-Story
Mindy H. Park
18: Remixing the Good News: Using Music to Sustain Faith
Latasha Thomas-Durrell
19: Hitting the Music Educational Jackpot: Directing the Marching Band at a
Historic Las Vegas School
Alfonzo V. Kimbrough
Section V: Reimagining Music Education
Orientation V: Reimagining Music Education: Challenges, Changes and
Triumphs
Rekha S. Rajan
20: The Diversity Within: An Intersectional Challenge/Opportunity
Darrin Thornton
21: Elite Vocal Music Education: Where Perceived Liberalism Doesnt Cut
It
Taylor Masamitsu
22: The Gospel of Musical Inclusion
Jason D. Thompson
23: Musicking With the Other 80%
Alberto Vargas
24: I, Too, Wear The Mask
Quinton D. Parker
25: I Can See Clearly Now: Confronting Stereotypes and Assumptions about
Urban Music Education
G. Preston Wilson
Epilogue: Carrying the Fire!! of a New Music Education: Devoted to Musicians
of the Global Majority
Christopher Cayari
Index
Christopher Cayari is an associate professor of music at Purdue University West Lafayette-Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Their research interests include popular music, musical theater, race & ethnicity, gender & sexuality, and identity scholarship.
Jason D. Thompson is an an inaugural faculty member at the nations first Black Honors College at California State University, Sacramento, USA. His research interests include socially engaged arts practices, music participation as civic engagement, and the ways culture shapes musical experiences.
Rekha S. Rajan is an award-winning classically trained singer who has performed in musicals, operas and operettas across the U.S. Her bestselling children's literature books encourage young readers to explore the world around them through the arts.
