Supplemental Information: Episode 12
Nicole Mitchell's Mandorla Awakening II and the Sounds of Afrofuturist Theory
Audrey Slote (University of Chicago)
Release Date: Thursday, June 26, 2025
Podcast interview with the author on Her Music Academia: Spotify, Apple Music
Production Credits
Team Lead: Anna Rose Nelson
Production Lead: Jason Jedlička
Peer Reviewers: Jacob Cupps and Caitlin Martinkus
Music Credits
SMT-Pod Theme Music: Maria Tartaglia
Closing Music: Yike Zhang
Other Original Compositions: Nicole Mitchell
Bio: Audrey Slote is a PhD candidate in music theory and a Neubauer Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. She studies the relationship between musical aesthetics and the political in several contexts, including Italian modernism, Afrofuturism, and American indie music of the last ten years. Her dissertation analyzes how stylistic shifts and crackups in recent indie music respond to political and social upheaval while simultaneously gesturing toward expressions of community. Slote also holds two degrees in music performance and continues to perform as a freelance cellist throughout the Chicago area.
Keywords: Jazz analysis, Afrofuturism, feminism, music and politics, epistemology