Lawrence W. Levine Black Culture and Black Consciousness

Lawrence W. Levine states in Black Culture and Black Consciousness that culture is “not a fixed condition but a process: the product of interaction between the past and the present. Its toughness and resiliency are determined not by a culture’s ability to withstand change…but by its ability to react creatively and responsively to the realities of a new situation.” How did enslaved people react creatively and responsively to the realities of their situation, as captive laborers in an unfamiliar land, through music? How did they adapt the musical forms, aesthetics, and principles of their West and Central African homelands to this new context? In your answer, please discuss at least two African American musical genres or performance traditions originating before the Civil War in detail.Responses should be roughly 350 to 500 words.