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Crystal Sellers Battle articulates a path toward long-term cultural change at the Eastman School of Music.

Crystal Sellers Battle began her musical journey in church, singing gospel as a youth with her father and siblings. But when she entered college to study voice, 鈥淚 went into my very first voice lesson and was told by my teacher that I had to choose between singing gospel music or singing classical music,鈥� she says.

Classical vocal training has been honed over centuries to protect the health and viability of the vocal cords. Thus, the teacher reasoned, gospel singing could limit Sellers Battle鈥檚 prospects for a long and successful career鈥攁s a classical singer. Later, as a doctoral student at Ohio State, Sellers Battle found a mentor who supported her aspirations, and she was able to make a major contribution toward advancing the study of gospel music through her dissertation, .

But Sellers Battle, who started in July 2022 as the inaugural associate dean of equity and inclusion at the 鈥檚 , also knew that something unspoken was at play in the efforts of teachers to steer her away from gospel.

 
The world of music鈥攁 practice and an art form believed to be universal among cultures and societies and with ancient roots鈥攊s vast. Yet the doorway into schools of music in the United States has been narrow. Despite the rich musical traditions indigenous to this country鈥擬ississippi Delta blues, bluegrass and Appalachian folk, the musics of Native Americans, jazz鈥攗niversity-level American schools of music proliferated around the turn of the last century to teach and disseminate Western classical music. And to do so was considered a means of cultural elevation.

That historical legacy places a unique burden on schools of music, including Eastman, striving to cultivate a more inclusive learning environment. Although Eastman and its elite peers have long since begun to diversify faculty and curricula, the remnants of that exclusionary past remain entrenched.

In June 2020鈥攄eep into the COVID-19 pandemic and in the cataclysmic aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minneapolis police officers鈥擩amal Rossi, the Joan and Martin Messinger Dean of the Eastman School, announced the formation of the Eastman Action Commission for Racial Justice. The mission of the 20-person group composed of students, faculty, staff, and alumni was to recommend 鈥渁ctionable, achievable, measurable, and sustainable鈥� steps to accelerate the school鈥檚 work toward achieving a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. Working on a tight timeframe, the commission conducted surveys of alumni, students, and faculty, and released a the following fall.

The opening lines of the report, which Rossi called read: 鈥淭he Commission asserts that diversity, equity and inclusion at Eastman have failed to reach the level of highest priority at the School, noting that there has been little change in this regard since 1921.鈥�

There has been only one full-time Black faculty member in the history of the school鈥檚 jazz program, for example, and only for a period of two years, in the 1990s. Meanwhile, 鈥渕any Black alumni, while acknowledging the excellent education they received, cite harrowing and tragic experiences while students at the School,鈥� the commission noted.

The position Sellers Battle now occupies, as well as the , which she directs, are outgrowths of the commission鈥檚 work.

Q&A with Crystal Sellers Battle

The phrase 鈥渄iversity, equity, and inclusion鈥� has become pretty ubiquitous in recent years in higher education and in workplaces generally. What do each of these words mean to you?聽

Sellers Battle: Diversity comes from our mere existence. We all came from different places. We were raised differently. We have different sexual preferences and identities. We have different socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds. We all have different stories related to our upbringing.

I don鈥檛 actually like to use the word diversity, because it鈥檚 not something we need to work toward. What we do need to work toward is equity and inclusion.

Equity is about everyone having the necessary resources for a successful outcome. I use this example: all full-ride scholarships are not created equal. A student who gets a full ride who came here from a low-income household has a very different experience than someone on a full ride whose parents are doctors. When it comes time to buy a tuxedo or a concert dress, the needs of those two students might not be the same. And to provide additional resources for one, in this case, does not take away from the other.

And I say that inclusion is about the eradication of compartments. For example, I have several identities and not just one. I鈥檓 Black, I鈥檓 female, I鈥檓 a mom, I’m married, I鈥檓 straight, I was born Christian, I grew up in a two-parent household, and I was a first-generation college student. You probably have several identities yourself. And what we鈥檝e tended to do is to decide that because someone has a different identity than ours鈥攊n any single dimension鈥攚e鈥檙e going to put them in a compartment over somewhere in the corner. An inclusive environment is one where we鈥檙e all in the same container but there are no walls.

Based on your own experiences and knowledge of the history of American music schools, you鈥檝e pointed out that music schools have some unique challenges in fostering inclusion. What are those?

Sellers Battle: What is really challenging in the very nature of the study of music and a higher education process is that it was built on the idea that one form of music, and one which makes up a very small portion of the world鈥檚 musics, is superior to any other. Based on that assumption, schools adopted one set of rules, and those were considered the only set of rules.

The assumption of Western classical music鈥檚 superiority is very deeply rooted, and it鈥檚 interesting how that came to be. Initially most of what is thought of as classical music was created either for church services or for social gatherings in people鈥檚 homes. Art song was written to be sung in people鈥檚 homes in liederabend鈥攏ights where people gathered to sing together. So there were popular and practical reasons for the creation of this music.

But then there became the study of it, coinciding with the rise of the modern research university. And with the study of the music came the theorizing about it. And that theorizing turns what might have once been a popular art form into a high-level art form. I would say that you could probably have theorized West African music, too. It鈥檚 just that it wasn鈥檛 done.

I think we, meaning music schools in general, have made progress in accepting everyone鈥檚 various identities as a person. But then we get to the study of music and eliminate their identities as musicians. For a lot of us, especially those of us who are African American, our entr茅e into music was not through the classical arena.

What are your top priorities as Eastman鈥檚 first designated leader for equity and inclusion?

Sellers Battle: Priority one is identifying what equity and inclusion mean for this institution. The definitions I offered are my general definitions, but the definitions are different for every institution based on priorities and historical contexts.

Priority number two is to make the George Walker Center into a space for students. There鈥檚 a belief here that 鈥渆at, sleep, music鈥� is how you operate鈥攁nd students tend to skip the sleep part. I have a rule: we鈥檙e not going to practice in this space; we鈥檙e going to use it to unwind and rejuvenate. It鈥檚 also going to address the needs of affinity groups. So there may be nights when we鈥檙e really focused on LGBTQ+ energies, or when our Black Students Union is reserving the space for an affinity moment. But I鈥檓 also trying to convey that the George Walker Center is a space for all. And in being a space for all, it鈥檚 going to bring some people together who wouldn鈥檛 necessarily have been together otherwise.

My third priority is to engage in conversations with faculty, staff, and students to help me see where faculty, staff, and students see themselves in this process. I want to make sure that we鈥檙e all engaged in thinking about what the process for change looks like.

Have you set longer-term goals?

Sellers Battle: I have a few ideas based on the commission report and other observations. We鈥檙e probably going to be looking at curricular restructuring but doing it in small segments rather than as a major overhaul. You cannot do an about-face without proper planning and time, or people are going to get hurt.

Leading a cultural shift seems like an extraordinarily complicated and challenging job. What are your thoughts on how to go about it?

Sellers Battle: Sometimes it鈥檚 really difficult to abandon tradition. A lot of people also think that the only way to enter into conversations about equity and inclusion is through the topic of race. It鈥檚 not. Let鈥檚 go back to my description of an inclusive space as a single container without walls. Sometimes I also use the analogy of a cruise ship. We鈥檙e all on the same ship, but there are many entryways.

My belief is that if you are not comfortable coming into this conversation through the door of race, then let鈥檚 have you enter through another door, which may be about age, or another which may be about religion, or gender, or a particular interest鈥攚hatever it is that鈥檚 going to get you into the space. Then we can begin the conversation.

Equity and inclusion is about much more than race. Let鈥檚 talk about the challenges of socioeconomic status, or religious identity, and all of these other dimensions to our identities. And then people who are not comfortable entering through the door of race are going to find out that there are some similarities between the challenges they face that are based on a particular aspect of their identity and the challenges faced by people that stem from race.

We鈥檙e not going to be able to eradicate institutionalized racism, or any other kind of structural inequity, in a day. But we can till the soil to break some of it up. And that takes work. A lot of work. But that doesn鈥檛 mean that it鈥檚 impossible work.

Editor鈥檚 note: This story was originally published on October 5, 2022. It has been updated to feature the video聽titled Breaking Down the Barriers of Gospel Music.