Portia K. Maultsby facts for kids

Portia Katrenia Maultsby, born on June 11, 1947, is an American expert in music and a teacher. She is a retired professor from Indiana University Bloomington. Her special area of study is African-American music. She started the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991.

About Portia Maultsby

Her Early Life and Schooling

Portia Maultsby was born in Orlando, Florida. She grew up in the southern United States during a time when schools and public places were separated by race. This was known as segregation. She had an older brother, Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr., who became a psychiatrist. She also had a twin brother, Casel Hayes Maultsby, who was a pilot.

Portia Maultsby finished Jones High School in Orlando in 1964. She then went to Mount St Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas. She studied music there with a scholarship. In 1968, she earned her first college degree in piano, music theory, and composition.

The next year, she earned a master's degree in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1974, she earned her PhD in ethnomusicology from the same university. She was the first African American person to earn this degree in the United States. Ethnomusicology is the study of music from different cultures around the world.

Her Career in Music and Teaching

Portia Maultsby started teaching at Indiana University in 1971. At that time, she was still a student herself. She was asked to join the university by Dr. Herman Hudson. She became the first director of the Indiana University Soul Revue. This was a student group that performed Black music.

By 1975, she was an assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies. In 1977, she helped create a song called "Music is Just a Party" for her student group. This song was chosen as a top single by Billboard magazine in a special category. She later became the head of the African-American Studies department from 1985 to 1991. After that, she became a professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology in 1992.

Professor Maultsby is an expert in many types of African-American music. These include funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and spirituals. In 1991, she started the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture. She was the director of these archives until 2013. The archives began with her own personal collection of music. By 2003, it had grown to include over 10,000 pieces of music and items related to music. These items included interviews, photographs, and recordings.

Portia Maultsby also helped write two important textbooks with her colleague, Mellonee V. Burnim. These books are African American Music: An Introduction (published in 2006) and Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (published in 2016). She also wrote the introduction for the 2018 book Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection.

In 2011, Professor Maultsby received an award from the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music. She has also worked as a helper for museums, like the Smithsonian Institution in 1985. She has also been a researcher for documentary films, including the PBS series Eyes on the Prize. She has helped with many projects, such as "The Motown Sound" and "Wade in the Water."

Books by Portia Maultsby

• African American Music: An Introduction (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2006. ISBN: 9781317934431
• Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2016. ISBN: 9781315472072