- "DJing and lecturing aren't different practices for me. I just fuse them together." The scholar and performer reflects on bringing critical ideas to club spaces and writing about raves.
- madison moore is a true multi-hyphenate: an artist, scholar, DJ and assistant professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Despite having a hand in so many seemingly disparate endeavors, however, moore sees their work across academia and music as being intrinsically interconnected, and their mission is to find ways to bring theory and practice into one space.
In this conversation with journalist and former RBMA editor-in-chief Aaron Gonsher, moore reflects on how he was first inspired by figures like Paul D. Miller (AKA DJ Spooky), who brought DJ technologies, parties and theory together. "Knowledge doesn't have to be gate kept behind a JSTOR portal," he says. "It doesn't have to be an institutional access thing. You can bring the knowledge, bring the ideas, bring the fun out."
In a series of performance lectures focused on queer nightlife, moore teaches about the historical context around dance music and the significance of the club for queer Black folks, explaining that he sees performance as a critical tool to spread ideas. He explored this fusion of academia and dance music at his recent nightlife residency at The Kitchen in New York—where he curated a series of public programs with DJs, artists, scholars and queer nightlife performers—and in his book Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. To hear his reflections on these projects and more, listen to the episode in full.
Photo by Rome God