Kirsten Keels is a proud NWA native turned Ivy League and international scholar. A first generation, low income student, Kirsten is a recent graduate of Princeton University and Fulbright Fellowship Recipient whose work revolves around global Blackness and popular music. Primarily, Korean Popular Music (K-pop). She seeks to reveal the ways that Black music acts as a foundation or undercurrent in much musical activity, even while that foundation is seldom explicitly acknowledged. Or better yet, how Black music has combined with local cultures to create new genres, movements, culture, etc. Black music IS popular music. As a vocalist, she also works to combine her love of music making and community (when she can). Kirsten currently works as the Program Manager for Equity, Inclusion, and Community and the Bard Queer Leadership Project at Bard College at Simon's Rock. She can be reached further at: kkeelsbusiness@gmail or give her a follow. Ig: k_keeels, tiktok: k.keels