KINGSTON, R.I. – Sept. 4, 2025 – From a marching band to Shakespeare–and Taylor Swift in between–the University of Rhode Island’s Center for the Humanities will take an academic view of pop culture with its annual lecture series this school year. But academic doesn’t mean not fun.

“The Humanities and Popular Culture/Counterculture,” which opens this fall with three presentations that will focus on music and social justice, art and Black Southern life, and Indigenous people’s space in pop culture, comes at a perfect time in programming – snug between two weightier lectures series by the center at a time when it may be good to take a breath and focus on issues outside the nightly news.

“After engaging with a really serious topic on ‘Sustaining Democracy’ last year, and with plans for a theme related to the nation’s 250^th birthday next year, we thought our audiences would enjoy something a little more fun,” said Evelyn Sterne, director of URI’s Center for the Humanities. “It’s a lighter theme, and, we hope, a nice distraction from the daily news. But we also want to send the message that popular culture and counterculture are serious academic topics that can be interpreted through the lens of the humanities.”

The series’ diverse range of topics should have an appeal within URI and its broader community. “Everyone engages with popular culture at some level. Who doesn’t listen to music or watch a professional sports game? Who hasn’t heard of Taylor Swift?” Sterne added. “Yet how many people have considered these pastimes as serious academic subjects worthy of deeper interpretation?”

The lecture series opens Thursday, Sept. 25, with the Extraordinary Rendition Band, a Providence-based street band that mixes performance with the belief that music has the power to fuel positive social change. The band’s performance “Make Loud!” starts at 7:30 p.m. in Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, and will be livestreamed.

Carolyn Betensky, chair of URI’s English Department, plays flugabone, a cross between a flugelhorn and a trombone, in the band. “We enjoy creating joyous and spontaneous musical mayhem wherever possible–at protests, festivals, and different kinds of community spaces,” she said. “We are an open band and we have two operative mottos: ‘Make Loud’ and ‘Any Note is Better than No Note.’”

Founded in 2009, the band of about 40 members plays for free–in the streets, in public spaces, at scheduled performances, protests and benefits–or shows up when least expected. Along with making people want to dance, the band is committed to social justice and building a strong, inclusive, and joyous community, according to its website. 

Nancey B. Price, a Black collage artist, storyteller, and rural Georgia native, will explore “Stories from the Soil: Collage, Culture, and the Black Rural Imagination,” in a two-part presentation on Thursday, Oct. 9, and Friday, Oct. 10. 

Price’s analog collage practice and fiction are rooted in Southern Black traditions, magical realism, and a deep connection to the land and ancestry. Her artwork has been featured in Southern Cultures journal, Garden & Gun Magazine, Oprah Magazine, and “Black Collagists: The Book,” and has been displayed at institutions across the country. She also created the cover art for “The Unboxing of a Black Girl” by Angela Shante, which was longlisted for a National Book Award.

On Oct. 9, Price will discuss how Black Southern life, especially in rural communities, is a foundation for “future-thinking,” as she blends personal narrative, visual art, and storytelling in examining the ways in which tending the land, preserving culture, and imagining new worlds are inherently Afrofuturist acts. The talk will be held at 4 p.m. in the Hope Room of the Higgins Welcome Center. 

On Oct. 10, Price will provide a hands-on community collage workshop in the Hardge Forum of the Multicultural Student Services Center at noon. Participants will use images, memory, and imagination to explore their own stories and collective visions of the future. The workshop is open to the first 45 people who register.

The fall lectures will close Thursday, Nov. 6, with Lee Francis IV, who will present “From Noble Savage to Tragic Chief: A Brief History of Natives in Pop Culture,” at 5 p.m. in the Hope Room of the Higgins Welcome Center. Francis, aka Dr. IndigiNerd, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe, will discuss the past, present and future of Indigenous representation in popular media.

“As part of Native American History Month, we thought it would be interesting to invite a speaker who could analyze why Native American themes have been attracting so much attention in popular culture in recent decades and how Native Americans have been portrayed,” Sterne said. “Rather than inviting a scholar to analyze these questions from a distance, we invited a speaker who has spent his career engaging with and creating Indigenous popular culture in a variety of spaces.”

Francis is the founder and chief imagination officer of the Indigenous Imagination Workshop, which is dedicated to sparking and cultivating the Indigenous imagination. An educator and entrepreneur, Francis is the founder of Indigenous Comic Con, Indigenous Worlds of Wonder, the Indigenous Futurism Festival, Native Realities, and Red Planet Books and Comics. He was also the host and lead writer for “IndigiGenius” on New Mexico PBS and co-producer for “Sovereign Innovations” on PBS Digital.

“The Humanities and Popular Culture/Counterculture” series will pick up again at the start of the spring semester, with presentations on gender, media and politics in global basketball; a crash course on Taylor Swift; and the staying power of Shakespeare.