Matt Sakakeeny is an ethnomusicologist and journalist, New Orleans resident and musician. An Assistant Professor of Music at Tulane University, he initially moved to New Orleans to work as a co-producer of the public radio program American Routes. Sakakeeny has written for publications including The Oxford American, Mojo, and Wax Poetics. He plays guitar in the band Los Po-Boy-Citos.
Willie Birch is an international artist who lives in New Orleans, where he was born in 1942. Birch received his BA from Southern University New Orleans in 1969 and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1973. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the State of Louisiana Governor's award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His works are part of the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

List of Artwork vii
Prologue. Crossing the Threshold ix
Introduction. Forward Motion 1
1. Onward and Upward 13
2. Constraints 69
3. Progressions 109
4. Voices 143
Conclusion. Engagements 179
Afterword. Image and Music in the Art of Willie Burch / Willie Burch and Matt Sakakeeny 187
Acknowledgments 195
Appendix. List of Interviews and Public Events 199
Notes 201
Bibliography 213
Index 227