The Center for World Performance Studies (CWPS) presents a guest scholar lecture by ethnomusicologist and curator Dr. Jennifer Kyker.

The Chicago Dzviti Photograph Collection presents the work of Chicago Dzviti (1961-1995), a pioneering Zimbabwean photographer whose archive offers an extensive visual record of Zimbabwean social, cultural, and musical life. In this talk, Dr. Kyker discusses her work as curator of the collection, including the touring exhibit "Portrait of Zimbabwe." She focuses particularly on Chicago Dzviti's intimate portrayals of Zimbabwean musicians, which make up a significant portion of the collection. As curator, Dr. Kyker's ethnographic approach explores relationships between visual culture and sound, using collaborative methods such as feedback interviews with musicians, curated playlists, and live performances by contemporary artists. Throughout, Dr. Kyker emphasizes how the Zimbabwean philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu, which articulates a vision of human identity predicated upon moral relationships between the self and others, is reflected in Chicago Dzviti's photographs as well as in the musical traditions they portray.

JENNIFER W. KYKER is Professor of Ethnomusicology in the Alfred Satz Music Department at the University of Rochester. Kyker is a former ACLS Fellow and three-time Fulbright Fellow. As a Fulbright Scholar her most recent project, “Portrait of Zimbabwe/Mifananidzo yeZimbabwe,” is a photographic exhibit co-curated with Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, and which is currently touring at venues throughout Zimbabwe. Her other work includes the digital humanities project Sekuru’s Stories (sekuru.org), featuring the oral narratives of Zimbabwean mbira player Sekuru Tute Chigamba, and the digital albums "Karirai Nhenda" and "Solo Mbira Songs," featuring members of the female mbira collective Mhare dzeNhare (ambuya.org). Her articles on listening and reception, music and gender, HIV/AIDS, and Zimbabwean musical bows have appeared in Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology Forum, African Music, and the American Journal of Public Health. In 2003, Kyker founded the nonprofit organization Tariro, which educates teenaged girls in Zimbabwean communities affected by HIV/AIDS and offers traditional music and dance instruction in low-income neighborhoods (tariro.org).