Lewis V. Baldwin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195380316
- eISBN:
- 9780199869299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195380316.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Martin Luther King, Jr.s upbringing in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1930s and ’40s is treated, with some focus on how “the Ebenezer tradition” and the larger African ...
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Martin Luther King, Jr.s upbringing in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1930s and ’40s is treated, with some focus on how “the Ebenezer tradition” and the larger African American church culture in Atlanta and the South impacted his growing understanding of and vision for the Christian church as a whole, from his childhood to his adult years. As the son and grandson of Ebenezer pastors and of pious women who were an active presence in that congregation for generations, King is pictured as one who always attached great significance to the church and church-related concerns. His early sense of the church as “a second home,” as extended family, as the fountainhead of culture, as a refuge, as educational center, as custodian of a deep and vital spirituality, and as a benchmark for congregational activism is underscored. The chapter concludes with attention to King’s struggle to negotiate the boundaries between the Christian fundamentalism to which he was exposed at Ebenezer and the theological liberalism he studied as a student at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University.Less
Martin Luther King, Jr.s upbringing in the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1930s and ’40s is treated, with some focus on how “the Ebenezer tradition” and the larger African American church culture in Atlanta and the South impacted his growing understanding of and vision for the Christian church as a whole, from his childhood to his adult years. As the son and grandson of Ebenezer pastors and of pious women who were an active presence in that congregation for generations, King is pictured as one who always attached great significance to the church and church-related concerns. His early sense of the church as “a second home,” as extended family, as the fountainhead of culture, as a refuge, as educational center, as custodian of a deep and vital spirituality, and as a benchmark for congregational activism is underscored. The chapter concludes with attention to King’s struggle to negotiate the boundaries between the Christian fundamentalism to which he was exposed at Ebenezer and the theological liberalism he studied as a student at Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and Boston University.
André Brock
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479820375
- eISBN:
- 9781479811908
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479820375.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This book addresses Black culture, Web 2.0, and social networks from new methodological perspectives. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis, the chapters within examine Black-designed ...
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This book addresses Black culture, Web 2.0, and social networks from new methodological perspectives. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis, the chapters within examine Black-designed digital technologies, Black-authored websites, and Black-dominated social media services such as Black Twitter. Distributed Blackness also features an innovative theoretical approach to Black digital practice. The book uses libidinal economy to examine Black discourse and Black users from a joyful/surplus perspective, eschewing deficit models (including respectability politics) to better place online Blackness as a mode of existing in the “postpresent,” or a joyous disregard for modernity and capitalism. This approach also adds nuanced analysis to the energies powering Black online activism and Black identity.Less
This book addresses Black culture, Web 2.0, and social networks from new methodological perspectives. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis, the chapters within examine Black-designed digital technologies, Black-authored websites, and Black-dominated social media services such as Black Twitter. Distributed Blackness also features an innovative theoretical approach to Black digital practice. The book uses libidinal economy to examine Black discourse and Black users from a joyful/surplus perspective, eschewing deficit models (including respectability politics) to better place online Blackness as a mode of existing in the “postpresent,” or a joyous disregard for modernity and capitalism. This approach also adds nuanced analysis to the energies powering Black online activism and Black identity.
Richard Iton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195178463
- eISBN:
- 9780199851812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178463.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being ...
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When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being said, and the word citizen being taken into consideration, it is therefore essential to know the values and limitations that this term is to assume. We have to identify a field that would dictate the styles of engagement and interpellation, agendas, and the goals and orders of politics. Looking into Foucault's notion of governmentality and biopolitics, this chapter concentrates on welfare policy and the movement that resulted in the removal of federal financial support for Americans who earn lower level incomes. More so, we study how the black community has reacted through popular culture to such political and cultural issues.Less
When trying to establish the identity of something, one does not automatically refer to the aspects that do not involve the subject, or to attributes from which the subject is exempted. That being said, and the word citizen being taken into consideration, it is therefore essential to know the values and limitations that this term is to assume. We have to identify a field that would dictate the styles of engagement and interpellation, agendas, and the goals and orders of politics. Looking into Foucault's notion of governmentality and biopolitics, this chapter concentrates on welfare policy and the movement that resulted in the removal of federal financial support for Americans who earn lower level incomes. More so, we study how the black community has reacted through popular culture to such political and cultural issues.
Lawrence W. Levine
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195082975
- eISBN:
- 9780199854035
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195082975.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
In this book, fourteen chapters, written over two decades, cover American history, historiography, aspects of black culture, and American popular culture (during the Great Depression). Some deal with ...
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In this book, fourteen chapters, written over two decades, cover American history, historiography, aspects of black culture, and American popular culture (during the Great Depression). Some deal with such related topics as the transfer of African culture to America, Marcus Garvey as a black leader, the development of black culture in the 1920s, and the role of jazz in American culture. Several chapters involve recent concern with American popular culture during the Great Depression of the 1930s, including such areas as film, radio, and photography. These chapters offer fresh insights into the black experience and culture in general in America.Less
In this book, fourteen chapters, written over two decades, cover American history, historiography, aspects of black culture, and American popular culture (during the Great Depression). Some deal with such related topics as the transfer of African culture to America, Marcus Garvey as a black leader, the development of black culture in the 1920s, and the role of jazz in American culture. Several chapters involve recent concern with American popular culture during the Great Depression of the 1930s, including such areas as film, radio, and photography. These chapters offer fresh insights into the black experience and culture in general in America.
Michael Hanchard
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195176247
- eISBN:
- 9780199851003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176247.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter undertakes an assessment of the contemporary state of the study of African American politics by political scientists in the United States. It explores the connections and dissonances ...
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This chapter undertakes an assessment of the contemporary state of the study of African American politics by political scientists in the United States. It explores the connections and dissonances between political science literature on public opinion and ideology on the one hand, and black ideological forms, social criticism, and social movements on the other, to identify the ways in which the discipline of political science, in its contemporary biases toward positivist methods, restricts and limits our understandings of the contours of black politics and black political culture.Less
This chapter undertakes an assessment of the contemporary state of the study of African American politics by political scientists in the United States. It explores the connections and dissonances between political science literature on public opinion and ideology on the one hand, and black ideological forms, social criticism, and social movements on the other, to identify the ways in which the discipline of political science, in its contemporary biases toward positivist methods, restricts and limits our understandings of the contours of black politics and black political culture.
Lawrence W. Levine
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195082975
- eISBN:
- 9780199854035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195082975.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The chapter focuses on popular culture and how it is an effective mechanism for understanding Depression America. This chapter aims to get get away from rigid adjective labels as much as possible and ...
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The chapter focuses on popular culture and how it is an effective mechanism for understanding Depression America. This chapter aims to get get away from rigid adjective labels as much as possible and recognize that while culture may not be seamless, it is connected. It recommends a rethink of a series of attitudes and images that prevent the serious study of popular culture: image of the purely passive mass audience, all forms of culture only popular culture is so thoroughly formulaic, the notion that popular culture was and is invariably “escapist” and the notion that popular culture may not be generally be on the cutting edge of knowledge or style it is therefore not truly an art form. In black folk culture, there is no single overarching thematic matrix. Black folk in and out of slavery used different parts of their expressive culture for different purposes.Less
The chapter focuses on popular culture and how it is an effective mechanism for understanding Depression America. This chapter aims to get get away from rigid adjective labels as much as possible and recognize that while culture may not be seamless, it is connected. It recommends a rethink of a series of attitudes and images that prevent the serious study of popular culture: image of the purely passive mass audience, all forms of culture only popular culture is so thoroughly formulaic, the notion that popular culture was and is invariably “escapist” and the notion that popular culture may not be generally be on the cutting edge of knowledge or style it is therefore not truly an art form. In black folk culture, there is no single overarching thematic matrix. Black folk in and out of slavery used different parts of their expressive culture for different purposes.
Constance Valis Hill
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390827
- eISBN:
- 9780199863563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390827.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Dance
This chapter begins with the all-black production of Darktown Follies of 1913—the musical hit that popularized such tap steps as over-the-top and in-the-trenches—and the “buying” of that musical by ...
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This chapter begins with the all-black production of Darktown Follies of 1913—the musical hit that popularized such tap steps as over-the-top and in-the-trenches—and the “buying” of that musical by Florenz Ziegfeld for his Ziegfeld Follies of 1914; and elaborates on the interest of whites in borrowing song and dance material from black culture. While buck-and-wing/tap dancing was slow to gain prominence on the white Broadway stage, it developed as a performance art in traveling medicine shows, carnivals, tent shows, and circuses. In the teens, tap moved onto the vaudeville stage, despite its evolution in two separate arenas, as black and white entertainers were kept apart. Heading down dual paths of development that rarely intersected, the great wave chain of black and white vaudeville created a sort of double helix that wound around the core of tap without ever joining into a single strand.Less
This chapter begins with the all-black production of Darktown Follies of 1913—the musical hit that popularized such tap steps as over-the-top and in-the-trenches—and the “buying” of that musical by Florenz Ziegfeld for his Ziegfeld Follies of 1914; and elaborates on the interest of whites in borrowing song and dance material from black culture. While buck-and-wing/tap dancing was slow to gain prominence on the white Broadway stage, it developed as a performance art in traveling medicine shows, carnivals, tent shows, and circuses. In the teens, tap moved onto the vaudeville stage, despite its evolution in two separate arenas, as black and white entertainers were kept apart. Heading down dual paths of development that rarely intersected, the great wave chain of black and white vaudeville created a sort of double helix that wound around the core of tap without ever joining into a single strand.
Richard Iton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195178463
- eISBN:
- 9780199851812
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195178463.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as ...
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Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as this book shows, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social spaces. The book offers a portrait of the relationship between popular culture and institutionalized politics, tracing the connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley and Erykah Badu and those individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender, sexuality, diaspora and coloniality, the book also illustrates how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper location of politics, and politics itself.Less
Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as this book shows, despite the changes brought about by the civil rights movement, and contrary to the wishes of those committed to narrower conceptions of politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making and maintenance of critical social spaces. The book offers a portrait of the relationship between popular culture and institutionalized politics, tracing the connections between artists such as Paul Robeson, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Pryor, Bob Marley and Erykah Badu and those individuals working in the protest, electoral, and policy making arenas. With an emphasis on questions of class, gender, sexuality, diaspora and coloniality, the book also illustrates how creative artists destabilize modern notions of the proper location of politics, and politics itself.
Rob Waters
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520293847
- eISBN:
- 9780520967205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293847.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Thinking black held people together across their differences. This chapter explores how this holding-together worked, looking at how different groups articulated blackness as they spoke in its name, ...
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Thinking black held people together across their differences. This chapter explores how this holding-together worked, looking at how different groups articulated blackness as they spoke in its name, as well as looking at the materiality of black political cultures—how these operated within a wider expressive culture and how they were affectively charged. The chapter uses the case of the Soledad Brothers to study how Britons defined themselves and their politics as black. It shows their negotiation of Black Power’s often stark masculinity and its African American hegemony. It also draws attention to the processes and problems they encountered building up a political blackness premised on solidarity across differences of ethnicity and gender, making a case for the importance of the immersive and intimate dimensions of black political culture for such alliances.Less
Thinking black held people together across their differences. This chapter explores how this holding-together worked, looking at how different groups articulated blackness as they spoke in its name, as well as looking at the materiality of black political cultures—how these operated within a wider expressive culture and how they were affectively charged. The chapter uses the case of the Soledad Brothers to study how Britons defined themselves and their politics as black. It shows their negotiation of Black Power’s often stark masculinity and its African American hegemony. It also draws attention to the processes and problems they encountered building up a political blackness premised on solidarity across differences of ethnicity and gender, making a case for the importance of the immersive and intimate dimensions of black political culture for such alliances.
Lawrence W. Levine
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195082975
- eISBN:
- 9780199854035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195082975.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter shows how the works of Shakespeare depicted black culture on a white stage. The humor of a people affords important insights into the nature of their culture. Hamlet has been a favorite ...
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This chapter shows how the works of Shakespeare depicted black culture on a white stage. The humor of a people affords important insights into the nature of their culture. Hamlet has been a favorite target of numerous travesties imported from England or crafted at home. Shakespeare became a staple of theaters in the Far West. Shakespeare's popularity can be determined by the frequency and the size of the audiences. If Shakespeare had been an integral part of mainstream culture in the 19th century, in the 20th century, he had become part of the “polite” culture or the “legitimate” theater. Signs of this transformation appear throughout the 20th century. Culture is a process so Shakespeare's relationship to the American people has always been changing.Less
This chapter shows how the works of Shakespeare depicted black culture on a white stage. The humor of a people affords important insights into the nature of their culture. Hamlet has been a favorite target of numerous travesties imported from England or crafted at home. Shakespeare became a staple of theaters in the Far West. Shakespeare's popularity can be determined by the frequency and the size of the audiences. If Shakespeare had been an integral part of mainstream culture in the 19th century, in the 20th century, he had become part of the “polite” culture or the “legitimate” theater. Signs of this transformation appear throughout the 20th century. Culture is a process so Shakespeare's relationship to the American people has always been changing.
E. James West
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043116
- eISBN:
- 9780252051999
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043116.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter focuses on the publication of Ebony’s first major “Negro History” series during the early 1960s, a feature which helped to formalise its role as an outlet for popular black history and ...
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This chapter focuses on the publication of Ebony’s first major “Negro History” series during the early 1960s, a feature which helped to formalise its role as an outlet for popular black history and signalled the emergence of Lerone Bennett, Jr. as a popular historian and public intellectual. The diverse ways in which Ebony’s audience and external critics engaged with the magazine’s series reveals the importance of Ebony’s role as a ‘history book’, but also how this role was contested by other black history outlets and organisationsLess
This chapter focuses on the publication of Ebony’s first major “Negro History” series during the early 1960s, a feature which helped to formalise its role as an outlet for popular black history and signalled the emergence of Lerone Bennett, Jr. as a popular historian and public intellectual. The diverse ways in which Ebony’s audience and external critics engaged with the magazine’s series reveals the importance of Ebony’s role as a ‘history book’, but also how this role was contested by other black history outlets and organisations
Tanya Maria Golash-Boza
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813035741
- eISBN:
- 9780813038490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813035741.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter considers the implications of the conceptualization of blackness for multicultural reforms in Peru. It describes multicultural reforms that the Peruvian government has recently adopted ...
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This chapter considers the implications of the conceptualization of blackness for multicultural reforms in Peru. It describes multicultural reforms that the Peruvian government has recently adopted as part of a project funded by the World Bank. These reforms, which use discourses of cultural and ethnic differences, are a dramatic change from the official discourse that Afro-Peruvian inclusion should be achieved through incorporation as opposed to a recognition of differences. Drawing from interviews with Afro-Peruvians, the chapter explains how Afro-Peruvians discuss their inclusion in the Peruvian nation and their desire (or lack thereof) for cultural recognition.Less
This chapter considers the implications of the conceptualization of blackness for multicultural reforms in Peru. It describes multicultural reforms that the Peruvian government has recently adopted as part of a project funded by the World Bank. These reforms, which use discourses of cultural and ethnic differences, are a dramatic change from the official discourse that Afro-Peruvian inclusion should be achieved through incorporation as opposed to a recognition of differences. Drawing from interviews with Afro-Peruvians, the chapter explains how Afro-Peruvians discuss their inclusion in the Peruvian nation and their desire (or lack thereof) for cultural recognition.
Jessica Gerrard
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780719090219
- eISBN:
- 9781781706954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719090219.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This chapter explores the emergence of the BSS movement. First, in order to understand the intellectual and political influences on the late-twentieth-century black politic, the historical and ...
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This chapter explores the emergence of the BSS movement. First, in order to understand the intellectual and political influences on the late-twentieth-century black politic, the historical and political genealogy of black resistance is examined. Second, contextualising the emergence of the BSS movement within broader of black politics. This chapter explores the historical circumstances that led to the inception and consequent proliferation of BSSs across England, including the institutional racism of state schooling. Finally, exploring the projection of a black community and selfhood, the placement of ‘blackness’ as a foundational conceptual tenet of BSSs, and the collective cultures they fostered, is considered. In this discussion BSS curricula and schooling practices are examined, revealing diverse experiences and understandings of class, race and gender in the creation – and projection – of collective black cultures in BSSs.Less
This chapter explores the emergence of the BSS movement. First, in order to understand the intellectual and political influences on the late-twentieth-century black politic, the historical and political genealogy of black resistance is examined. Second, contextualising the emergence of the BSS movement within broader of black politics. This chapter explores the historical circumstances that led to the inception and consequent proliferation of BSSs across England, including the institutional racism of state schooling. Finally, exploring the projection of a black community and selfhood, the placement of ‘blackness’ as a foundational conceptual tenet of BSSs, and the collective cultures they fostered, is considered. In this discussion BSS curricula and schooling practices are examined, revealing diverse experiences and understandings of class, race and gender in the creation – and projection – of collective black cultures in BSSs.
Nathaniel G. Chapman and David L. Brunsma
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781529201758
- eISBN:
- 9781529201789
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529201758.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
This chapter investigates how the lack of diversity and representation in the craft beer industry has led to the systematic exclusion of black people from beer consumption. One way to do this is to ...
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This chapter investigates how the lack of diversity and representation in the craft beer industry has led to the systematic exclusion of black people from beer consumption. One way to do this is to focus on the use of racially targeted marketing to sell cheaper products of lesser quality to communities of color; malt liquor is a critical case. Another way is to interrogate the ways in which the contemporary craft beer industry has appropriated black culture and iconography to sell beer to white people. The issue of representation, both socially and culturally, is of key importance in looking at the marketing of beer. According to interview data, the issue of representation is a major barrier in preventing black, other minority, and female participation in craft beer and its cultures. Given this reality, it is not surprising at all that most significant efforts to diversify the beer industry have mostly been led by consumers.Less
This chapter investigates how the lack of diversity and representation in the craft beer industry has led to the systematic exclusion of black people from beer consumption. One way to do this is to focus on the use of racially targeted marketing to sell cheaper products of lesser quality to communities of color; malt liquor is a critical case. Another way is to interrogate the ways in which the contemporary craft beer industry has appropriated black culture and iconography to sell beer to white people. The issue of representation, both socially and culturally, is of key importance in looking at the marketing of beer. According to interview data, the issue of representation is a major barrier in preventing black, other minority, and female participation in craft beer and its cultures. Given this reality, it is not surprising at all that most significant efforts to diversify the beer industry have mostly been led by consumers.
Munro Martin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262829
- eISBN:
- 9780520947405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262829.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter traces a conventional colonial history of rhythm and its suppression in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Trinidad. It studies the close relationship between music, dances, and ...
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This chapter traces a conventional colonial history of rhythm and its suppression in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Trinidad. It studies the close relationship between music, dances, and slave rebellion, which was established early in a relatively short time. The British authorities in general systematically suppressed the drum and rhythmic popular music, as they were fearful of slave insurrection. As slavery continued, creolization took on a more complex, multidimensional shape, perpetuating the unpredictable play of cultures that characterizes the processes of creolization. During this period, at every point in the cultural history of Trinidad, rhythm was momentarily silenced, only to return via new, improvised instruments such as bottles and spoons, biscuit tins, pieces of bamboo, and finally the steel pan. Repression of rhythmic music only strengthened the bond between rhythm and the popular black culture of the island.Less
This chapter traces a conventional colonial history of rhythm and its suppression in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Trinidad. It studies the close relationship between music, dances, and slave rebellion, which was established early in a relatively short time. The British authorities in general systematically suppressed the drum and rhythmic popular music, as they were fearful of slave insurrection. As slavery continued, creolization took on a more complex, multidimensional shape, perpetuating the unpredictable play of cultures that characterizes the processes of creolization. During this period, at every point in the cultural history of Trinidad, rhythm was momentarily silenced, only to return via new, improvised instruments such as bottles and spoons, biscuit tins, pieces of bamboo, and finally the steel pan. Repression of rhythmic music only strengthened the bond between rhythm and the popular black culture of the island.
Catherine A. Stewart
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469626260
- eISBN:
- 9781469628295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469626260.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter places the Federal Writers’ Project’s mission to collect and document African American history and culture within the larger context of the 1930s. National interest in black folk culture ...
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This chapter places the Federal Writers’ Project’s mission to collect and document African American history and culture within the larger context of the 1930s. National interest in black folk culture and the “Negro question” along with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Civil War and competing forms of remembrance through film, Ex-Slave associations, and Old Slave Days, helped fuel debates over black citizenship. By hiring African American writers, such as Sterling Brown as the editor of Negro Affairs, to oversee projects related to black history, the FWP seemed to herald a new era in African Americans’ struggle for authority over cultural representations of black identity. But the increasing commodification of black folk culture through the recording industry, radio, and film, along with folklorists and southern whites’ emphasis on the “old-time Negro,” presented significant challenges to black authority despite invocations of authenticity, the social sciences, and the image of the New Negro.Less
This chapter places the Federal Writers’ Project’s mission to collect and document African American history and culture within the larger context of the 1930s. National interest in black folk culture and the “Negro question” along with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Civil War and competing forms of remembrance through film, Ex-Slave associations, and Old Slave Days, helped fuel debates over black citizenship. By hiring African American writers, such as Sterling Brown as the editor of Negro Affairs, to oversee projects related to black history, the FWP seemed to herald a new era in African Americans’ struggle for authority over cultural representations of black identity. But the increasing commodification of black folk culture through the recording industry, radio, and film, along with folklorists and southern whites’ emphasis on the “old-time Negro,” presented significant challenges to black authority despite invocations of authenticity, the social sciences, and the image of the New Negro.
Roopali Mukherjee
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814762226
- eISBN:
- 9780814765296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814762226.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter highlights the work of consumption and acquisitive desire within struggles over race and racial equality, focusing on a comparative reading of two moments in time to reveal how racial ...
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This chapter highlights the work of consumption and acquisitive desire within struggles over race and racial equality, focusing on a comparative reading of two moments in time to reveal how racial ideologies shape discourses of commodity culture, as well as how commodity culture shapes the disciplinary mechanisms of the racial order. The first critical moment returns historically to calls in early black political discourse for a deliberate consumerist politics that promised deliverance into the fantasy of full-fledged democratic citizenship for African Americans. The second outlines contemporary proclamations of the black American Dream epitomized by the hyper-consumerist excesses of ghetto fabulous “bling.” These examples offer the means to interrogate critically the equivalences found circulating between black material ascendance and post-racial hegemonies of the neoliberal moment. They also help show how race matters within contemporary culture, and moreover, reveal openings within black commodity cultures themselves that disturb the reassuring appeal of the idea of the post-racial.Less
This chapter highlights the work of consumption and acquisitive desire within struggles over race and racial equality, focusing on a comparative reading of two moments in time to reveal how racial ideologies shape discourses of commodity culture, as well as how commodity culture shapes the disciplinary mechanisms of the racial order. The first critical moment returns historically to calls in early black political discourse for a deliberate consumerist politics that promised deliverance into the fantasy of full-fledged democratic citizenship for African Americans. The second outlines contemporary proclamations of the black American Dream epitomized by the hyper-consumerist excesses of ghetto fabulous “bling.” These examples offer the means to interrogate critically the equivalences found circulating between black material ascendance and post-racial hegemonies of the neoliberal moment. They also help show how race matters within contemporary culture, and moreover, reveal openings within black commodity cultures themselves that disturb the reassuring appeal of the idea of the post-racial.
Laura Chrisman
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719058271
- eISBN:
- 9781781700136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719058271.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This chapter emphasizes Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic, which reveals that a culture is not specifically African, American, Caribbean or British, but all of these at once, a black Atlantic culture ...
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This chapter emphasizes Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic, which reveals that a culture is not specifically African, American, Caribbean or British, but all of these at once, a black Atlantic culture whose themes and techniques transcend ethnicity and nationality to produce something new and, until now, unremarked. Gilroy's concept of a black Atlantic offers a political and cultural corrective that argues for the cross-national, cross-ethnic basis and dynamics of black diasporic identity and culture. His characterisation of nationalism tends not to acknowledge diversities, but, rather, targets generalized ethnicist nationalism as the only kind of contemporary nationalism that afflicts both white and black communities in identical ways. Gilroy's ideology challenges Marxist, economic and philosophical accounts of the development of modernity as a self-contained European process, based on principles and practices of rationality, economic productivism, Enlightenment egalitarianism and wage labour.Less
This chapter emphasizes Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic, which reveals that a culture is not specifically African, American, Caribbean or British, but all of these at once, a black Atlantic culture whose themes and techniques transcend ethnicity and nationality to produce something new and, until now, unremarked. Gilroy's concept of a black Atlantic offers a political and cultural corrective that argues for the cross-national, cross-ethnic basis and dynamics of black diasporic identity and culture. His characterisation of nationalism tends not to acknowledge diversities, but, rather, targets generalized ethnicist nationalism as the only kind of contemporary nationalism that afflicts both white and black communities in identical ways. Gilroy's ideology challenges Marxist, economic and philosophical accounts of the development of modernity as a self-contained European process, based on principles and practices of rationality, economic productivism, Enlightenment egalitarianism and wage labour.
Kimberly L. Cleveland
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813044767
- eISBN:
- 9780813046457
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813044767.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Black Art in Brazil explores the work of five artists from different regions of Brazil—Abdias do Nascimento, Ronaldo Rego, Eustáquio Neves, Ayrson Heráclito, and Rosana Paulino—against the wider ...
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Black Art in Brazil explores the work of five artists from different regions of Brazil—Abdias do Nascimento, Ronaldo Rego, Eustáquio Neves, Ayrson Heráclito, and Rosana Paulino—against the wider backdrop of socio—historical and political developments taking place at the national and popular levels in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book traces the history of national and international interest in black art in Brazil, changes in the related terminology, and development of the discourse. Excerpts from interviews with artists and curators illustrate how different individuals understand and relate to the increasingly popular label “Afro—Brazilian art.” The publication also expands upon current scholarship by introducing its readers to a variety of paintings, prints, photographs, installations, sculptures, and performance pieces produced outside the Afro—Brazilian religious communities for secular audiences. The book’s in-depth analysis of different works demonstrates how some Brazilian art conveys “blackness” through visual vocabulary and how the markers of black art and culture have continued to diversify. In comparing modern (post-1920) and contemporary (post-1985) production, the book reveals that as the discourse on race, ethnicity, and black art began to change in the 1970s, so too did artists shift the creative focus from exploring their African cultural heritage to producing work that confronts current race—related social challenges in Brazil.Less
Black Art in Brazil explores the work of five artists from different regions of Brazil—Abdias do Nascimento, Ronaldo Rego, Eustáquio Neves, Ayrson Heráclito, and Rosana Paulino—against the wider backdrop of socio—historical and political developments taking place at the national and popular levels in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book traces the history of national and international interest in black art in Brazil, changes in the related terminology, and development of the discourse. Excerpts from interviews with artists and curators illustrate how different individuals understand and relate to the increasingly popular label “Afro—Brazilian art.” The publication also expands upon current scholarship by introducing its readers to a variety of paintings, prints, photographs, installations, sculptures, and performance pieces produced outside the Afro—Brazilian religious communities for secular audiences. The book’s in-depth analysis of different works demonstrates how some Brazilian art conveys “blackness” through visual vocabulary and how the markers of black art and culture have continued to diversify. In comparing modern (post-1920) and contemporary (post-1985) production, the book reveals that as the discourse on race, ethnicity, and black art began to change in the 1970s, so too did artists shift the creative focus from exploring their African cultural heritage to producing work that confronts current race—related social challenges in Brazil.
David Gilbert
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469622699
- eISBN:
- 9781469622712
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469622699.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter describes how the Hotel Marshall musicians advanced new and transgressive approaches to racial politics and representations. Their visions of blackness saw beauty in the vernacular of ...
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This chapter describes how the Hotel Marshall musicians advanced new and transgressive approaches to racial politics and representations. Their visions of blackness saw beauty in the vernacular of the masses, even as they are snubbed by the cultural elitism of the Talented Tenth's own efforts at racial uplift. Instead of trying to change the masses, the Marshall community attempted to change the perception of black vernacular expression. The Marshall musicians' strategies for increasing the professional and cultural value of black commercial culture presented a different approach to racial uplift. Centering on professionalizing African American performers and expanding the number of blacks who could become full-time professionals, Marshall entertainers expanded the social respect, cultural authority, and weekly wages of hundreds of blacks, not only in New York but throughout America.Less
This chapter describes how the Hotel Marshall musicians advanced new and transgressive approaches to racial politics and representations. Their visions of blackness saw beauty in the vernacular of the masses, even as they are snubbed by the cultural elitism of the Talented Tenth's own efforts at racial uplift. Instead of trying to change the masses, the Marshall community attempted to change the perception of black vernacular expression. The Marshall musicians' strategies for increasing the professional and cultural value of black commercial culture presented a different approach to racial uplift. Centering on professionalizing African American performers and expanding the number of blacks who could become full-time professionals, Marshall entertainers expanded the social respect, cultural authority, and weekly wages of hundreds of blacks, not only in New York but throughout America.
