This book explores how pivotal Instagram Live events Club Quarantine and Verzuz have provided respite from social isolation and a rearticulated space for Black cultural engagement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased racial tensions in the United States.

Sustaining Black Music and Culture during COVID-19: #Verzuz and Club Quarantine argues that Instagram is a premier digital leisure space to celebrate and promote Black American culture and identity, particularly evidenced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as the United States grappled with mandated shelter-in-place orders. Club Quarantine (CQ) and Verzuz emerged as highly successful Black music-listening events streamed on Instagram Live, collectively ushering Black (techno)culture through a once-in-a-generation pandemic and beyond. Contributors to this collection explore the communicative and cultural significance of these events as respite from social isolation and as a rearticulated space for Black cultural engagement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased racial tensions in the United States.