WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Monthly Folklore Talk
Joe Johnson
Joe Zavaan Johnson (he/they) is a multi-instrumentalist, arts educator, Black music researcher,
and native of Ohio. He is currently am Ethnomusicology Ph.D. Candidate at Indiana University-Bloomington, where his dissertation looks at the Black banjo renaissance through the lenses of
Black studies, human geography, folklore, and ethnomusicology. Recently, Johnson was a
featured artist at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, the DeFord Bailey Legacy Festival,
and the Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival. His mentors include Jake Blount and Brad Leftwich.
Isaiah Green
Isaiah Green will delve into the broader, often overlooked instances of witch trials, spanning from the 1500s in Italy to the present-day witch hunts in Tennessee. In this exploration, he will connect the figure of the “witch”; to the theories of monsters and monstrosity, examining how societies across time and cultures use narratives of magic to justify and perpetuate gendered and racial violence.
Nia I’man Smith
Nia I’man Smith is an interdisciplinary Black music scholar and Ph.D. candidate in theDepartment of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at IU Bloomington. Her research interests include acts and practices of ancestor veneration within Black music, record collecting as an archival practice, and Black-owned record stores as sites of cultural preservation.
