Josh Kun

Josh Kun 

b. 1971, Los Angeles
lives in Los Angeles

Josh Kun is an author, curator, and cultural historian based in Los Angeles. His studies and practice focus on the intersection of culture and politics in popular music. After dissecting the elements of music’s cultural past, he reassembles them into a narrative shaping their contributions to current and future geographical and cultural identities. He has curated exhibitions and led artist projects with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles; The Getty Foundation, Los Angeles; Grammy Museum, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Public Library; and the Santa Monica Museum of Art (now the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles). His commissioned collaborations with musicians include projects with Nicole Mitchell, Guillermo Galindo, Ozomatli, and J. Period. Kun has been the recipient of the Berlin Prize from the American Academy of Berlin (2018) and a MacArthur Fellowship (2016). Kun is a professor of communication and journalism at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He received a BA in literature from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and a PhD in ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Documentation of “Open Rehearsals (For a new song, for a new city),” Hit Parade, a project of Public Knowledge, a collaboration between the San Francisco Public Library and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2017. Organized by Josh Kun