Launching My Blog!!

Will Baxley Records Africa! from Will Baxley on Vimeo.


Friends and Family!

I am launching this blog to keep everyone fully up to date on all the latest happenings concerning my research internship in Africa this summer!  I have a little under three weeks before I fly out, and I am feeling well prepared!

Just to give some general insight:

My internship is as a personal aid of the director of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), which is based out of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.  Her name is Prof Diane Thram, and she is incredible!  Last August, I was looking for potential research internships for ethnomusicology fieldwork.  There were no programs immediately available for undergraduates to be doing fieldwork, but the ILAM consistently topped my searches as an authority in the field.  I personally emailed Professor Thram, asking about fieldwork opportunities.  For the past year we have been discussing her plans for fieldwork this summer, as well as how I can be a part of them!  I will be attending a number of Applied Ethnomusicology Symposiums in a South Africa and Tanzania.  I will also be attending a major traditional arts festival in each country.  Finally, we will be conducting repatriation fieldwork in Kenya, updating existing recordings.  This is the real meat and potatoes of the internship.  I'll be working on a cutting edge project, in the field, with some of the top professionals in ethnomusicology.  All of this from just a crazy personal email to the director of ILAM!  Pretty exciting.

Preparations are well under way.  I had to take a loan for the full amount up front, so that I could make some time-sensitive purchases.  This amount came to $6000.  I am actively fundraising to hopefully pay this loan off as quickly as possible.  Because I worked to design this internship myself, there aren't quite as many options through my school for financing it.  Likewise, because it is a pilot research project, there isn't much funding for ILAM to bring me over.  The approval of the loan confirmed my convictions that this internship is indeed something beyond the plans of Will Baxley.  It blows my mind every day that I even have this opportunity.  The generosity of those supporting me in this adventure is also breath-taking; I could have never dreamt of making this possible on my own.

I'll be posting on this pretty regularly as I continue to raise support and get ready for my departure.  Please check out my fundraising sight below, and share it if you like!

More to come,

-Will Baxley