VCU news

By Brian McNeill

Dwandalyn R. Reece, Ph.D., the visionary museum curator behind the Musical Crossroads exhibit and musical programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, will bring the story of Black music to Virginia Commonwealth University as VCU Libraries 2023 Black History Month Lecturer.

Reece will speak from 7-9 p.m. on Feb. 23 in the James Branch Cabell Library Lecture Hall, 901 Park Ave. The event will be livestreamed and is free and open to the public. Registration for in-person and Zoom attendance is available here.

“Every year, due to the support of The Francis M. Foster African American History Endowment Fund, we are able to bring speakers who encompass our mission and values of embracing diversity and inclusion to foster excellence, an open exchange of ideas, and to celebrate the richness of an environment shaped by many voices,” said Irene Herold, dean of libraries and university librarian at VCU. “Dr. Reece exemplifies these values, and we are delighted to be welcoming her as the 22nd annual VCU Libraries Black History Month Lecturer.”

A musician, scholar and museum professional, Reece has spent her career working at the intersection of history, culture and the arts. She was responsible for the acquisition, research and interpretation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s music and performing arts collection, one of 12 permanent exhibits at the museum, which opened in 2016.

Today, she is the museum’s associate director for curatorial affairs. Reece assumed her current post after serving 13 years as the museum’s first curator of music and performing arts. In that role, she built a collection of more than 4,000 objects; curated the museum’s inaugural permanent music exhibition, “Musical Crossroads”; co-curated the museum’s grand opening music festival, “Freedom Sounds: A Community Celebration,” and the 2019 Smithsonian Year of Music initiative; and served as chair of the Smithsonian Music Executive Committee, a position she still holds today.

Reece’s remarks will be drawn in part from her forthcoming book, “Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music,” that will explore the meanings underlying the objects on display at the Smithsonian. She will explain how these objects expand our understanding of the culture of African American music-making and the foundation it has built in the United States and around the world.

Recent projects include co-hosting the award-winning Sirius/XM podcast series, All Music is Black Music, and serving as contributing producer on Folkways’ Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap (2021). In 2022, Reece received the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Judith McCulloh Public Sector Award. She currently serves on the boards of her alma mater, Scripps College, and the Society for Ethnomusicology.  

Before joining the Smithsonian, Reece was a senior program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities and worked in several museums including the Louis Armstrong House and Archives, the Brooklyn Historical Society, the New Jersey State Museum, and the Motown Historical Museum.

Reece studied American studies and music at Scripps College, American culture and museum practice at the University of Michigan, and performance studies at New York University.