Dwandalyn Reece, associate director for curatorial affairs at the National Museum of African Americn History and Culture, will bring the story of Black music to Virginia Commonwealth University as the 2023 VCU Libraries Black History Month

Lecturer.

A musician, scholar and museum professional, Dr. Reece said her career has been centered around music collections and public humanities work. Before assuming her current role last year, she was the museum’s first curator of music and performing arts for 13 years. During that time, Dr. Reece built a collection of more than 4,000 objects and curated the museum’s inaugural permanent music exhibition, “Musical Crossroads.”

Of the many objects in the museum, Dr. Reece gives examples of just a few — an outfit associated with Marian Anderson when she performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, the P-Funk Mothership donated to the museum by George Clinton, and a banjo created for Charles P. Stinson, a Black minstrel performer in the late 1800s.

“These objects are really fascinating ways to tell us not only what music is in African- American culture, but how it operates in society and how central it is to our daily lives and experience,” Dr. Reece said during a recent interview.

She considers it an honor to be asked to lecture at VCU, where her daughter is currently a graduate student in the university’s physical therapy program. She also saw it as a fortuitous opportunity to share glimpses into her newly released book, “Musical Crossroads: Stories Behind the Objects of African American Music.”

“I love music, I love history and I love storytelling. My excitement about music is getting to understand it and why it means something to us.

“Music is about community,” she added. ‘We are all part of music’s story. It’s not just about the singer on the stage.”

Dr. Reece will speak from 7 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 23, in the James Branch Cabell Library Lecture Hall, 901 Park Ave. The event will be live-streamed and is free and open to the public. Registration is required for both in-person and Zoom attendance at https://www.support.vcu.edu/event/BlackHistoryMonth2023