African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity
Signaling such recent activist and aesthetic concepts in the work of Kara Walker, Childish Gambino, BLM, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar, and marking the exit of the Obama Administration and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this anthology explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S. The essays in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity engage readers in critical conversations by activists, scholars, and artists reflecting on national and transnational legacies of African American activism as an element of artistic practice, particularly as they concern artistic expression and race relations, and the intersections of creative processes with economic, sociological, and psychological inequalities. Scholars from the fields of communication, theater, queer studies, media studies, performance studies, dance, visual arts, and fashion design, to name a few, collectively ask: What are the connections between African American arts, the work of social justice, and creative processes? If we conceive the arts as critical to the legacy of Black activism in the United States, how can we use that construct to inform our understanding of the complicated intersections of African American activism and aesthetics? How might we as scholars and creative thinkers further employ the arts to envision and shape a verdant society?

Contributors: Carrie Mae Weems, Carmen Gillespie, Rikki Byrd, Amber Lauren Johnson, Doria E. Charlson, Florencia V. Cornet, Daniel McNeil, Lucy Caplan, Genevieve Hyacinthe, Sammantha McCalla, Nettrice R. Gaskins, Abby Dobson, J. Michael Kinsey, Shondrika Moss-Bouldin, Julie B. Johnson, Sharrell D. Luckett, Jasmine Eileen Coles, Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Rickerby Hinds.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press. 
"1131426947"
African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity
Signaling such recent activist and aesthetic concepts in the work of Kara Walker, Childish Gambino, BLM, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar, and marking the exit of the Obama Administration and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this anthology explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S. The essays in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity engage readers in critical conversations by activists, scholars, and artists reflecting on national and transnational legacies of African American activism as an element of artistic practice, particularly as they concern artistic expression and race relations, and the intersections of creative processes with economic, sociological, and psychological inequalities. Scholars from the fields of communication, theater, queer studies, media studies, performance studies, dance, visual arts, and fashion design, to name a few, collectively ask: What are the connections between African American arts, the work of social justice, and creative processes? If we conceive the arts as critical to the legacy of Black activism in the United States, how can we use that construct to inform our understanding of the complicated intersections of African American activism and aesthetics? How might we as scholars and creative thinkers further employ the arts to envision and shape a verdant society?

Contributors: Carrie Mae Weems, Carmen Gillespie, Rikki Byrd, Amber Lauren Johnson, Doria E. Charlson, Florencia V. Cornet, Daniel McNeil, Lucy Caplan, Genevieve Hyacinthe, Sammantha McCalla, Nettrice R. Gaskins, Abby Dobson, J. Michael Kinsey, Shondrika Moss-Bouldin, Julie B. Johnson, Sharrell D. Luckett, Jasmine Eileen Coles, Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Rickerby Hinds.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press. 
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Overview

Signaling such recent activist and aesthetic concepts in the work of Kara Walker, Childish Gambino, BLM, Janelle Monáe, and Kendrick Lamar, and marking the exit of the Obama Administration and the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this anthology explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S. The essays in African American Arts: Activism, Aesthetics, and Futurity engage readers in critical conversations by activists, scholars, and artists reflecting on national and transnational legacies of African American activism as an element of artistic practice, particularly as they concern artistic expression and race relations, and the intersections of creative processes with economic, sociological, and psychological inequalities. Scholars from the fields of communication, theater, queer studies, media studies, performance studies, dance, visual arts, and fashion design, to name a few, collectively ask: What are the connections between African American arts, the work of social justice, and creative processes? If we conceive the arts as critical to the legacy of Black activism in the United States, how can we use that construct to inform our understanding of the complicated intersections of African American activism and aesthetics? How might we as scholars and creative thinkers further employ the arts to envision and shape a verdant society?

Contributors: Carrie Mae Weems, Carmen Gillespie, Rikki Byrd, Amber Lauren Johnson, Doria E. Charlson, Florencia V. Cornet, Daniel McNeil, Lucy Caplan, Genevieve Hyacinthe, Sammantha McCalla, Nettrice R. Gaskins, Abby Dobson, J. Michael Kinsey, Shondrika Moss-Bouldin, Julie B. Johnson, Sharrell D. Luckett, Jasmine Eileen Coles, Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Rickerby Hinds.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press. 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781684481521
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Publication date: 12/06/2019
Series: The Griot Project Book Series
Pages: 344
Product dimensions: 6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

SHARRELL D. LUCKETT is director of the Helen Weinberger Center for Drama and Playwriting and an assistant professor of drama and performance studies at the University of Cincinnati. She is the founding director of the Black Acting Methods Studio, a training program in performance theory and practice.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Series Editor Foreword Carmen Gillespie xi

Visual Foreword Carrie Mae Weems xiii

Introduction: African American Arts in Action Sharrell D. Luckett 1

Part I Bodies of Activism

1 Trans Identity as Embodied Afrofuturism Amber Johnson 15

2 Designing Our Freedom: Toward a New Discourse on Fashion as a Strategy for Self-Liberation Rikki Byrd 29

3 Pearl Primus's Choreo-Activism: 1943-1949 Doria E. Charlson 41

4 Performing New Nationalism/Performing a Living Culture: Josefina Báez's Dominicanish Florencia V. Cornet 51

5 Ethnicity, Ethicalness, Excellence: Armond White's All-American Humanism Daniel McNeil 69

6 Race and History on the Operatic Stage: Caterina Jarboro Sings Aida Lucy Caplan 89

Part II Music And Visual Art As Activism

7 "I Am Basquiat": Tracing Jean-Michel Basquiat's Alterity and Activism in Paint and Performance Genevieve Hyacinthe 105

8 "I Luh God": Erica Campbell, Trap Gospel, and the Moral Mask of Language Discrimination Sammantha McCalla 127

9 The Hidden Code of the Kongo Cosmogram in African American Art and Culture Nettrice R. Gaskins 139

10 From Baldwin to Beyoncé: Exploring the Responsibility of the Artist in Society-Re-envisioning the Black Female Sonic Artist as Citizen Abby Dobson 152

11 Slaying "Formation": A Queering of Black Radical Tradition J. Michael Kinsey 174

Part III Institutions of Activism

12 Centering Blackness through Performance in Every 28 Hours Shondrika Moss-Bouldin 191

13 Dancing for Justice Philadelphia: Embodiment, Dance, and Social Change Julie B. Johnson 201

14 A Conversation with Freddie Hendricks of the Freddie Hendricks Youth Ensemble of Atlanta Sharrell D. Luckett 214

15 The Conciliation Project as a Social Experiment: Behind the Mask of Uncle Tom-ism and the Performance of Blackness Jasmine Coles Tawnya Pettiford-Wates 220

Afterword: Blackballin' 237

A Play By Rickerby Hinds

Acknowledgments 307

About the Contributors 309

Index 313

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