An Arts Experience Beyond the Classroom: Building Community and Changing Lives

By
Katie Dieter

This summer, Dr. Katie Dieter led a Bing Overseas Study Program (BOSP) Global Arts Seminar in Kingston, Jamaica titled The Arts in Jamaica: Exploring Knowledge Production, Community, and Resistance. The course included 15 Stanford students alongside two Jamaican photography students from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin, PhD candidate in History, served as the course seminar assistant. The group explored Jamaica’s vibrant interdisciplinary artistic landscape through public art, music, dance, storytelling, DJing and sound systems, drumming, and culinary traditions to name a few. Through theoretical and practical exploration, field trips, and sustained interaction with local artists, scholars, and students, the seminar encouraged students to analyze how Jamaican art has shaped and reflected Black identity, liberation movements, and cultural heritage, while also considering how art functions as knowledge production, community-building, and resistance in their own lives.

There were many notable experiences during this seminar, one of which included the students co-writing, producing, and recording an original song with two-time Grammy-nominated recording artist Runkus and award-winning singer-songwriter, recording artist and actress, Naomi Cowan. In this meaningfully collaborative workshop, students worked with these Jamaican artists to write lyrics as a collective, as well as engage with the production aspect of the song, including one of the Jamaican photography students adding camera clicks to the beginning of the track (which reflected the photography project the students engaged with in the class) and a saxophone being played on the track by one of the Stanford students, who carried her saxophone with her to Jamaica. All students can be heard singing on the track alongside Naomi Cowan’s voice with Runkus working his magic on the production side. Click here to listen to the song, titled “Mine’s Eye." Listen for the camera clicks and the saxophone! 

Students brainstorm song lyrics during the songwriting/recording session with Jamaican recording artists, Naomi Cowan and Runkus.

The class also collaborated with students and faculty from the Alpha School of Music in a jam session at the school in Kingston and a couple weeks later, recorded a song with the same students at the historic Harry J Studios, where Bob Marley and the Wailers recorded their first five albums. Stanford, Edna Manley College, and Alpha School of Music students can be heard playing instruments on the track with Alpha School of Music graduate, Zuri Aiko on the lead vocals. The recorded song titled “My Boy Lollipop,”  helped to introduce ska music to the world in 1964 when Millie Small's recording of the song became an international hit.  Click here to listen to the song titled "My Boy Lollipop," produced by Evan Campbell and mixed by JLL.

Other experiences included a drumming and dance workshop with the Charles Town Maroons, attendance at Reggae Sumfest, the Caribbean’s largest reggae festival, and an instrument-making workshop with internationally renowned artist and instrument maker, Jeff Menzies. Students also visited Wickie Wackie Beach to hear from Uncle Ronnie, an iconic sound system builder, DJ, and vinyl record collector along with a lecture by Mel Cooke. That session ended with a DJ set by DJ Kryptic, an up-and-coming Jamaican DJ who was trained by Uncle Ronnie. Students also shared a meal and dialogue with Stanford alum Kamila McDonald on the philosophy and practice of ital food, and with cultural leader Dr. Kerida McDonald, who guided the group through Rastafari traditions, language, and history, as well as the legacy of her father, pioneering Jamaican art collector A.D. Scott. The group later went to the National Gallery of Jamaica and visited the A.D. Scott room to view the works collected by Dr. McDonald’s father. Students also engaged deeply with other Jamaican scholars and artists, including musicians, and filmmakers.  They went to museums, participated in tours, and were led by Dr. Dieter into direct contact and collaboration with Kingston’s vibrant artistic communities.

Our group with Uncle Ronnie and DJ Kryptic in front of a sound system at Wickie Wackie Beach, home of Uncle Ronnie, DJ, vinyl collector, and builder of sounds systems.

The course fostered reciprocal and creative exchanges. Students not only learned from but also contributed to Kingston’s artistic communities. Scheduled community engaged collaborations often sparked spontaneous opportunities: One student was invited to perform live with her saxophone with a local band at a venue in Kingston in front of a large audience, while two other Stanford students collaboratively DJ'ed for their final project at Chilitos (a JaMexican restaurant and community hub) in front of a vibrant local crowd, many of which thought the students were local DJs!  Runkus was so inspired by the students during the songwriting/making workshop at the beginning of the seminar, that he hosted a private listening party for his upcoming unreleased album exclusively for the students so he could receive their feedback. Many students entered the seminar not identifying as artists, yet left inspired, feeling deeply connected to community, and committed to continuing their creative practices in new and meaningful ways, noting throughout the seminar how life-changing the course was to their artistic practice, their studies, and their lives. 

Runkus, Dr. Dieter, and Kadiya McDonald after Runkus’s private album listening party exclusively for the students to provide feedback on his unreleased album.

Students also completed photography projects in the course, which will culminate in an exhibition at the Foyer Gallery in Stanford’s McMurtry Building in October 2025. Their work will be featured alongside photography from students in Professor Ato Quayson’s BOSP Global Seminar in Accra (where Dieter also led students on a photography project) for a joint exhibition she will curate, focusing on African diasporic narratives. Please save the date for the exhibition opening on October 23, 2025, from 3–5 pm.

For Dieter, the most meaningful part of the course was the community that emerged amongst the students themselves and her beloved communities in Kingston. The students not only theorized about the course themes of community, knowledge production, and resistance, but they also deeply embodied these course’s themes and put them into practice daily, not just in the classroom, but in every encounter they had with artists and with each other. The students' vulnerability, care, and creativity made the experience far richer than Dr. Dieter could have ever imagined. Thank you to Bing Overseas Study, Stanford Arts, and the Department of African and African American Studies for making it possible!

Our groups’ completed maracas after the instrument making workshop with renowned artist and instrument maker, Jeff Menzies. The instruments were made by emptying out the seeds of dried calabash (which is much harder than you think!), putting different seeds inside, securing Blue Mahoe handles (Jamaica’s national wood), and hand painting original designs at the end.