St. Olaf Asst. Professor Earns Social Justice Award

NORTHFIELD, MN — Assistant professor of music at St. Olaf College Tesfa Wondemagegnehu recently received the school's Social Justice Award.

Wondemagegnehu will accept the award Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel with a public address titled "To Repair the Recital: Storytelling and Song," the college said.

The award recognizes faculty members who have contributed to the school's diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism efforts, as well as demonstrating the school's commitment to developing a more inclusive environment on campus, according to St. Olaf.

Wondemagegnehu will also receive a stipend to select a social justice project to carry out on campus next year, the college said. He will share more about his selected project at his public address Tuesday, according to the college.

Wondemagegnehu is currently the conductor of the Chapel Choir and Viking Chorus at St. Olaf, the college said.

His achievements include:

• Co-founding the Justice Choir movement
• Collaborating on nationally-distributed radio programs on Black Music
• He was the guest artistic director for Minnesota’s One Voice Mixed Chorus-one of the largest LGBTQ+ choirs in North America
• He was named artist-in-residence for the Harvard University Glee Club in 2019
• He co-created the W.E.B. DuBois Musical Project
• He created the "To Repair Project," which included 60 days of traveling 7,000 miles across the country collecting Black stories on what repair looks like

More information is available here.