An Evening of Music with Ruth Naomi Floyd

The California Lutheran University Office of the President is pleased to host guest artist Ruth Naomi Floyd for a musical performance with accompaniment by campus organist Adán Alejándro Fernández and the Kingsmen and Regals Quartets, as well as a collaboration with Monique Nunes. The event also will include a conversation between President John Nunes and Floyd.

Floyd is an award-winning vocalist, composer, educator, photographer and justice advocate whose work unfolds in two interwoven streams: sacred jazz and the African American historical witness. An internationally acclaimed artist, she performs and lectures worldwide at the intersection of beauty, theology, justice, history and the arts.

An educator for nearly thirty years, Floyd was the first African American woman to serve as the founding director of a university jazz studies program in the United States. She currently teaches at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania. In recognition of her contributions to the arts, music education, and justice advocacy, Concordia College New York awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Beyond music, Floyd is an award-winning photographer whose work is held in museums and private collections. For more than thirty years, her creative practice and teaching have been inseparable from her advocacy. Her work offers a sustained presence in Philadelphia and Africa, serving those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS as well as unhoused, transgender and incarcerated communities in Philadelphia.

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