Lynnée Denise (NL)

Lynnée Denise is an award-winning author, cultural worker, curator, interdisciplinary artist, and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths, University of London. Originally from Los Angeles, California, and now based between Amsterdam and Johannesburg, her work explores the movement of Black cultural knowledge across borders through sound, language, archives, and Black Atlantic thought.

Influenced by her parents' record collection and the sonic landscape of the 1980s, Lynnée coined the term "DJ Scholarship" in 2013 to describe a research practice that takes records, dance floors, radio broadcasts, and sound system culture seriously as sites of knowledge production. Her work examines how ideas travel through music and listening practices, positioning the DJ not simply as an entertainer, but as an archivist, educator, and cultural worker.

For more than two decades, Lynnée has traveled across cities, countries, and continents, documenting the social and sonic networks that shape Black diasporic life. Her curatorial and public scholarship projects trace the relationships between Black American and South African jazz, Black British soul music, Jamaican dub, and the sound system cultures that connect these traditions across national borders.

She is the author of the award-winning biography Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters, which chronicles the life and legacy of blues musician Willie Mae Thornton. Through writing, performance, public conversation, and listening-based practice, Lynnée continues to explore how Black communities create, preserve, and transmit knowledge through sound.