she was such a horrible teacher. she;s really passionate about the topic...but she's a HORRIBLE TEACHER...DON'T TAKE HER.

So here's the deal, professor Keyes is REALLY nice, sweet, funny, and super knowledgeable/insightful about women in jazz. However, underneath her lax attitude is a very scary midterm and final. She tests on extremely random facts that are almost never discussed in class or only mentioned in passing without elaboration. NAMES, she tests on NAMES. I jotted down over 100 names during my time in this class and she tests on all of them. She does not use slides so trying to keep up with her long lectures was very hard. By the end of the class I felt that taking notes was honestly pointless. She graded very generously on the paper and attendance though. Also had to curve our exams because everyone did so poorly. I do appreciate that she wants everyone to pass. I took this class as P/NP because I could not afford to let it drop my GPA. One thing I did love was that periodically she would play the piano gorgeously for us. Nice treat.

Honestly Trash. Just a bunch of random facts, and historical figures. Pure memorization. She gave out a study guide 2 days before the exam, and only like 20% of the questions referenced the study guide. Weekly paragraphs due, on readings that never get posted on CCLE. Don't take. Not a typical engaging Af Am class.

Professor Keyes is a great woman and its evident that she's really passionate about the subject material. She goes off on many tangents that you might think aren't that important but let me stress to you... TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING SHE SAYS. She doesn't have slides and but she sometimes emails the class a page or two on something she finds really important. Other than that, take lots of notes (I'd honestly say its more important than completing all of the readings). On a positive note, you do learn a lot about interesting history of Black music and the discussion section is extremely helpful as well. The midterm is pretty short, and the TA gives a practice midterm which is really similar. He also sends out note templates that outline everything you'd need to know to succeed in the class. DO THOSE!!! We also have to do 5 one page papers summarizing the readings for that week which really isn't that bad. The final essay isn't too difficult, but make sure you clarify with the TA exactly what he's looking for because sometimes the prompts can be a bit confusing. The Final was long and had lots of random information, but as long as you do well on the others, and complete the extra credit, you should be good to go.

Midterm I got a 95%, Paper 100% Final 79% and didnt do the extra credit but I managed to get an A. Id recommend the class if you're willing to pay attention to lecture and take notes. And don't be hesitant to talk to the TA, If I had done that sooner, I would have saved myself a lot of stress. He knows so much!