Bryan Wagner is Professor in the English Department, Director of the Folklore Program, and Professor in the American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Disturbing the Peace: Black Culture and the Police Power after Slavery (2009); The Tar Baby: A Global History (2017); The Wild Tchoupitoulas (2019), and The Life and Legend of Bras-Coupé: The Fugitive Slave Who Fought the Law, Ruled the Swamp, Danced at Congo Square, Invented Jazz, and Died for Love (2019). He directs two multidisciplinary collaborations in the digital humanities: Louisiana Slave Conspiracies, an interactive archive of trial manuscripts related to conspiracies organized at the Pointe Coupée Post in Louisiana in 1791 and 1795, and Tremé 1908, which tells the story of one year in the everyday life of an extraordinary neighborhood that was a crucible for civil rights activism, cultural fusion, and musical innovation.