News/Research

Alum Naomi Bragin in Topics of Meta

24 Jul, 2018

Alum Naomi Bragin in Topics of Meta

Alum Naomi Bragin, Assisant Professor at the University of Washington Bothell, published "On the Front Porch: Deborah McCoy and Fresno Streetdance" for Topics of Meta, a project made possible by support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

From the article:

Hit it.

The street is Poplar, central Fresno. The year is 1976, ‘77, ‘78. The familiar popping of a broadcast receiver hits hot summer air, locking to 1220 on the AM dial. A desert wind gusts. Stops.

Sooooul Followers. De Arthur Woodrow Miller is calling to all who listen. They gather around the sound of KLIP, Fresno’s first black-owned station and one of the first in the nation. Between ads for local folks like Mell-o Ice Cream on Tulare, Graves Upholstery on Broadway and J&C House of Records on California, alongside in-house conversations with James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles, Woody Miller keeps Fresno attuned to what and who is happening in the community—all blending together in a continuous mix of Gospel, R&B, Soul and Funk.

You can read the article here.