Education:
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania - 1987 (Philosophy)
Areas of Expertise:
Trained in folklore, ethnomusicology and American studies, Professor Allen's research has ranged from African American gospel and Caribbean Carnival music to works of composers Ruth Crawford Seeger and George Gershwin. His most recent works has focused on the urban folk music revival and Caribbean Carnival music in New York City.
Books and Publications
"Jump Up! Caribbean Carnival Music in New York City" (Oxford University Press). (Books and Publications: Book) 2019
"Harlem Calypso and Brooklyn Soca: Caribbean Carnival music in the Diaspora"
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Special Issue: Music, Immigration and the City: A Transatlantic Perspective (December 2018).
(Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2018
"Holy Ground: The Kezmatics Channel Woody Guthrie." Woody Guthrie Annual 1, 2015.
http://pops.uclan.ac.uk/index.php/WGA/article/view/297/121 (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2015
"The Brooklyn Connection: Frankie McIntosh and Straker Records." American Music Review (Fall, 2014). (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2014
"Empowering Bess, and Porgy Too: The Great American Opera One More time." American Music Review, Fall. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2011
"In Pursuit of Authenticity: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Post-War Folk Music Revival." Journal of the Society for American Music 4.3, August. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival. University of Illinois Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2010
"Performing Dio's Legacy: Mike Seeger and the Urban Folk Revival." Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in 20th Century American Music. Eds. Ray Allen and Ellie Hisama. University of Rochester Press. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2007
Allen, Ray and Hisama, Ellie. Ruth Crawford Seeger's Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in 20th Century American Music. University of Rochester Press. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2007
"Staging the Folk: New York City's Friends of Old-Time Music." Institute for Studies in American Music Newsletter, Spring. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2006
Allen, Ray and George Cunningham. "Cultural Uplift and Double-Consciousness in African American Responses to Porgy and Bess." The Musical Quarterly 88, Fall. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2005
"An American Folk Opera? Triangulating Folkness, Blackness, and Americaness in Gershwin and Heyward's Porgy and Bess." Journal of American Folklore 117, Summer. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2004
"Folk Music in the United States." The Encyclopedia of American Studies. Grolier Educational. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2001
"J'Ouvert in Brooklyn Carnival: Revitalizing Steel Pan and Old Mas Traditions." Western Folklore 58, Summer/Fall. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1999
"Porgy and Bess: Otto Preminger's Forbidden Film." Culture Front, Fall. New York Humanities Council. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 1999
Allen, Ray and Lois Wilcken. Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music in New York. University of Illinois Press. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 1998
"Unifying the Disunity: Teaching American Music from a Multi-Cultural Perspective." American Studies, Spring. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1996
"Back Home: Southern Migration and Identity in African-American Gospel Performance." Place in Modern American Culture. Eds. Wayne Franklin and Michael Steiner. University of Iowa Press. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1992
"Shouting the Church: Narrative and Vocal Improvisation in African-American Gospel Quartet Performance." Journal of American Folklore 104, Summer. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 1991
Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City. University of Pennsylvania Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 1991
Creative Work
"The New Lost City Ramblers: "Where Do You Come From? Where Do You Go?" CD and booklet compiled and annotated for Smithsonian Folwkays Records. 2009
"New York, the Global City: Grassroots Music from Around the Boroughs." Double CD and booklet compiled and annotated for Smithsonian Folkways Records. 2001
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
CUNY PSC Grant for manuscript preparation and photograph usage fees for forthcoming book "Jump Up! Caribbean Carnival Music in New York." (Grants and Fellowships) 2017
CUNY PSC Grant to support writing of forthcoming book, "Jump Up! Caribbean Carnival Music in Brooklyn." (Grants and Fellowships) 2016
"A Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration." New York Council for the Humanities Grant to coordinate a September 2012 conference honoring the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie's birth. (Grants and Fellowships) 2012
Leonard Tow Fellowship, for outstanding research and teaching. (Awards and Honors) 2011
New York Council for the Humanities grant to coordinate the conference "Black Brooklyn Renaissance." (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
New York Council for the Humanities grant, to coordinate the "New York City's Friends of Old-Time Music" conference. (Grants and Fellowships) 2006
Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College Fellowship, to research and write a book-length work focusing on the urban folk music revival. (Awards and Honors) 2006
New York Council for the Humanities grant, to coordinate the "Folk Music in the American Century: An Alan Lomax Tribute" conference. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003
PSC-CUNY research awards, for "Porgy and Bess: An American Cultural Reader" book project. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003
