Alaba Ilesanmi

Alaba, a McKnight Doctoral Fellow and a doctoral candidate in musicology at FSU, was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria. His primary focus is on the music of Africa and the African diaspora, delving into the ongoing dialogue among global Black cultures as they intersect with themes of identity and cultural politics, indigeneity, intersectionality, colonization, post-colonial theory, and globalization. Alaba directs the Afro-Nyota Pan-African ensemble and is currently working on his dissertation entitled “The Sound of Black Solidarity: (Re)Incarnations of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti in The Global Black Soundscape,” which centers on the late Nigerian musician Fela Kuti.