About Thomas Stanley

Writing: Since the late 80s I have written on popular musical culture with an emphasis on emergent traditions within the Black diaspora. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Washington City Paper, Du, Signal to Noise Magazine, The Yearbook of Traditional Music, several on-line fora, and a text book on New Media. I am co-author of George Clinton and P-Funk: An Oral History. I am also a performing creative writer with poetry appearing in Beyond the Frontier and Erotique Noire.

Scholarship: In December, 2009 I received a doctorate of ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland. My research was on on the amazing musical system developed by Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris. I also received my masters degree from Maryland for research on the contemporary music of the Garinagu of Belize, including the work of the late Andy Palacio.

Teaching: In 2003 I joined local radio personality Bobby Hill at George Mason University to teach Hip Hop Culture employing a comprehensive ethnographic approach. My first experience as "instructor of record" was funded by a curriculum development grant awarded by UMD's David C. Driskell Center for the Arts that allowed my first classroom to be the venue for my "dream course". Radical Black Music and Constructions of Cosmic Order was a survey course offered in 2004 that examined the philosophical implications of a handful of exceptional musicians and musical movements. In 2006 I was asked to join the faculty of Mason's School of Art (at the time the department of Art and Visual Technology). At George Mason I teach courses on Sound Art, Writing, Crtical Theory, and Hip Hop.

Music/Art: I perform electro-acoustic music with two ensembles: Mind Over Matter Music Over Mind and This Bag is Not a Toy. I offer my sound assemblages as a lever or a pry bar -- something to create a measure of space between the layer of world that presses down upon us and the fragile being underneath. My goal is to liberate territory, free up psychological real estate where we can be something for ourselves according to our own rules of design and/or operation. I've also done sonic installations including "Duration" (October, 2006/Gallery 1-2-3) which interrogated the notion of war without end.

Advocacy: I am a founding member of Transparent Productions -- a non-profit volunteer collective that has presented close to 200 concerts featuring the world's finest jazz improvisers and innovators since 2007. As a volunteer on-air programmer, I host a bi-monthly show called Late Night Jazz, heard alternating Thursdays from 11pm-1am on Pacifica affiliate WPFW-FM.

www.musicovermind.org