Giraud, who returned to school in 2008, has a background in performance, working as a percussionist, vocalist, and freelance teaching artist. In addition to being a long-time member of the women’s percussion ensemble Women of the Calabash, she has recorded and gone on tour with John Cale of The Velvet Underground, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Kurt Vonnegut, and others.
Giraud is currently studying cultural anthropology with an emphasis in music culture. She attributes her interest in folk culture and music to her experiences as a performer. Although she applied for the award to help with her educational expenses, she also has plans to fund a research project.
The project, which she began this summer, will explore the lives of three black women entrepreneurs in 1950s Harlem.
“They came from Vaudeville and Broadway and were owners of dance studios that were staples of that community,” she explained in an email.
“It is very much a labor of love,” she said of the project, “but, more significantly, it is an important study of a little-known success story about women in the Harlem community of that era.”
