This poem by Kimberly Gaubault appears in the Duke Magazine Special Issue 2021, in which all the stories focus on freedom. Gaubault (McCrae) graduated from Duke in 2000 and is an intentional lover of people and advocates for defining one's personal freedom.

Anthem For You

In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter protests gathered strength in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Duke President Vince Price released a statement committing the university to “take transformative action now toward eliminating … systems of racism and inequality.” He listed expected steps: diversity in hiring and admissions, additional aid, salary equity, Juneteenth as a Duke paid holiday. More, he pledged to “incorporate anti-racism into our curricula … across the university.”

One of the first places that led was to UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, a new universitywide course addressing the very concept of race, and how it was created and what it has wrought. That 14-week course was the first time Duke had addressed a topic like this in a universitywide course.

When it was time to create the UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, professor Kerry Haynie had an issue. The course came about as part of Duke’s antiracism effort, and Haynie’s central concern was simple: “I don’t know what people mean by antiracist,” he said. “I mean, I think I have an idea of what they think they mean.


“But I don’t know how to do that. That is not what I do as an academic.”  

It was a heavy lift. How do you create a course with a goal like that? How do you make sure you're teaching, not proselytizing? It's a complicated issue, so the Devils' Share attended that course to document. How'd it go? Did the students like it? Did they learn things? How'd the professors feel it went? What was it like to create such a course? What worked and what didn't? And, of course, what did everybody learn about race?

So take a listen to "The Race Course," as The Devils' Share documents a university taking steps towards antiracism -- whatever that turns out to mean.

Here's episode 1.

The Race Course: Episode 1, FIrst Steps

Duke's UNIV 101 course, The Invention and Consequences of Race, gathers momentum. We learn about the sociology of race and "immigrant whiteness," and how whiteness isn't a color, it's a social status that can be aspired to. Different groups, for example, both become and stop being white. How whiteness has a lot more to do with politics than skin color. And how the professors and the students feel the class is going, and how they chose to discuss or not discuss things.

Race Course: Episode 2, How to Become White

In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter protests gathered strength in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Duke President Vince Price released a statement committing the university to “take transformative action now toward eliminating … systems of racism and inequality.” He listed expected steps: diversity in hiring and admissions, additional aid, salary equity, Juneteenth as a Duke paid holiday. More, he pledged to “incorporate anti-racism into our curricula … across the university.”

One of the first places that led was to UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, a new universitywide course addressing the very concept of race, and how it was created and what it has wrought. That 14-week course was the first time Duke had addressed a topic like this in a universitywide course.

When it was time to create the UNIV 101: The Invention and Consequences of Race, professor Kerry Haynie had an issue. The course came about as part of Duke’s antiracism effort, and Haynie’s central concern was simple: “I don’t know what people mean by antiracist,” he said. “I mean, I think I have an idea of what they think they mean.

“But I don’t know how to do that. That is not what I do as an academic.”

It was a heavy lift. How do you create a course with a goal like that? How do you make sure you're teaching, not proselytizing? It's a complicated issue, so the Devils' Share attended that course to document. How'd it go? Did the students like it? Did they learn things? How'd the professors feel it went? What was it like to create such a course? What worked and what didn't? And, of course, what did everybody learn about race?

So take a listen to "The Race Course," as The Devils' Share documents a university taking steps towards antiracism -- whatever that turns out to mean.

The Race Course: Trailer

A special compilation of the trailer and the first two episodes of The Race Course, to support its entry for a CASE Circle of Excellence Award,

The Race Course: Compilation

This month Devils and Details meets with David Ntim, a sophomore studying biomedical engineering and computer science, who was chosen as this year’s Duke Chapel Student Preacher. Ntim speaks with us about faith and hope (and finals). Here’s a link to the entire service where he delivered his sermon. 

To learn about alumni events we meet with Lisa Weistart ’92 to learn about Details of the Devil: The History of Duke’s Mascot, a new documentary about the history of the Duke Blue Devil. The Duke Alumni regional teams have taken the documentary to several regional events and plan to take it to more; Lisa tells us about that, and Ann-Louise Aguiar tells us about upcoming events in Philadelphi and Boston, including one at the Philadelphia Free Library, designed by Julian Abele, who also designed Duke’s West Campus. And David Lindquist ’86, Duke Alumni Association assistant vice president, tells us about an upcoming event in Shanghai.

In our Everybody Comes to Duke segment we visit with Emmy-winning television writer and producer Michael Schur, who visited Duke to discuss his recent book, How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.

Devils and Details, episode 1

Stepping aside after 29 years as Director of the Duke Chapel Choir at Duke University Rodney Wynkoop shares thoughts and musical highlights.

TRANSCRIPTION:
TRACK
We walk to the front of Duke chapel, dim and empty.

ACTUALITY
So you can adjust this. This is where I sit on Sunday mornings. Is this good?

TRACK
It’s very good. It’s a moment to sit in one of his favorite spots with Director of Chapel Music Rodney Wynkoop, retiring from that position July first.

ACTUALITY
So we are sitting in the chancel of Duke Chapel. I am sitting in my usual place, which is at the front end and a place I’ve sat for 29 years. 

TRACK
A few days before he had stood in front of 200 or so members of the Chapel Choir and its alumni, singing together as a farewell. He told them how much he would miss the beauty of the chapel. Each week he would see windows, spires, organ -- but of course...

ACTUALITY
And then I always look at the most beautiful thing in this chapel, which is the singers who sit in the chapel choir. I will miss this truly beautiful, wondrous sight, more than anything else. Now let’s get to singing shall we?

[LAUGHTER]

NATSOUND
[SINGING]
Beautiful Savior, lord of the nations….

[UNDER]

TRACK
Though Wynkoop will no longer conduct the choir or serve as Director of Chapel Music, he isn’t leaving Duke; he’ll continue teaching and conducting choirs in Durham. Leaving musicmaking in the chapel, though, means saying goodbye to something very special. 

ACTUALITY
Through whatever kind of intentionality each of the singers and I brings to the music to offer an opportunity for people perhaps to think about, be taken to, metaphorically, someplace that may be divine, that may at least be out of the ordinary. That makes music a special kind of language. That it’s really a portal into something finer and more imaginative and perhaps faith filled.

NATSOUND: Music
“Beautiful Savior” up then finish.

NATSOUND
“Hallelujah” instrumental up then under

 ACTUALITY
The Chapel Choir has done Messiah in December since the Chapel opened.

NATSOUND: Music
“Hallelujah” voices up then under


ACTUALITY
And it is just brimming with energy and I find myself incredibly moved. But what’s equally exciting to me is after the performance usually at least one new member will come up to me and say something like you had told me, you had told all of us, that we couldn’t possibly imagine what this experience would be like until we actually did it. And with tears in their eyes usually they will  say it was unbelievable i cannot believe what we have just lived through.

NATSOUND: Music
“Hallelujah” up then back under

ACTUALITY
But at the very end there is this thunderous chorus, “Worthy is the Lamb that Was Slain.”

NATSOUND: Music
“Worthy is the Lamb” up then under 

ACTUALITY
And it’s followed by an “Amen” that to me is one of the most beautifully constructed pieces in the repertoire. It builds and builds and comes in waves and backs up and builds again. And it’s pretty cathartic. One of my favorite moments every year that we do Messiah is  hearing that buildup at the end and knowing that this amen is strong enough to be a stamp, a goal, at the end of that three hours of music and that this says, “Yes, it shall be like this.”

NATSOUND: Music
“Amen” up to finish

NATSOUND: Music
“God Be in My Head” up then under

TRACK
At the end of most services the choir processes down the center aisle and then comes back around the sides, surrounding the worshipers and singing to them, to the chapel, to each other. A last moment of embrace of the holy before departing.

Rodney Wynkoop retires as Director of Chapel Music at Duke.

A podcast sharing the voices of Duke alumni. Presented by Duke Magazine.

Rodney Wynkoop retires as Director of Chapel Music at Duke.

The Devils' Share: The Podcast of Duke Magazine

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