Terence Blanchard and the Politics of Breathing

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-44
Author(s):  
James Gordon Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Spoken Word ◽  
Social Critique ◽  
Staten Island ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Musical Space ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Systemic Violence

This chapter discusses trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s composition “Breathless” (2015). “Breathless” was Blanchard’s response to the 2014 killing of Eric Garner by members of the police on Staten Island and his musical connection to the Black Lives Matter social movement. Blanchard sonically represents breathlessness harmonically, rhythmically, and melodically within the values of Black musical space. It is argued that Blanchard’s orchestration of reverbed male and female sounds of exhalation with the spoken-word lyrics of JRei Oliver is a social critique of systemic violence. This chapter explains how Blanchard’s music is in conversation not only with the Black Lives Matter movement but with the archives and community repositories of improvised social justice music by past African American musicians who have historically created a Black sense of place through musical practices.

Crossing Bar Lines

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Gordon Williams ◽  
Robin D. G. Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
African American ◽  
Black People ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Musical Space ◽  
Eminent Scholar ◽  
Musical Practices

This book provides an interpretive framework for understanding how African American creative improvisers think of musical space. Featuring a Foreword by eminent scholar Robin D.G. Kelley, this is the first critical improvisation studies book that uses Black Geographies theory to examine the spatial values of musical expression in the improvisational and compositional practices of trumpeters Terence Blanchard and Ambrose Akinmusire, drummers Billy Higgins and Terri Lyne Carrington, and pianist Andrew Hill. Bar lines in this book serve as a notational and spatial metaphor for social constraints connected to systemic and structural white supremacy. Crossing them therefore applies not only to conceptions of Black spatiality in musical practices but also to how African American musicians address structural barriers to fight the social injustices that obstruct freedom and full citizenship for African Americans and other marginalized groups. Defined by both liminal and quotidian reality, Black musical space, like Black feminist thought, is about theorizing through the lived experiences of Black people which reflect different genders, sexual identities, political stances, across improvisational eras. Using this theory of Black musical space, the book explains how these dynamic musicians explicitly and implicitly articulate humanity through compositional and improvisational practices, some of which interface with contemporary social movements like Black Lives Matter. Consequently, Crossing Bar Lines not only fills a significant gap in the literature on African American, activist musical improvisation and contemporary social movements, but it gives the reader an understanding of the complexity of African American musical practices relative to fluid political identities and sensibilities.

Entering a Theory of Black Musical Space

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
James Gordon Williams
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Musical Space ◽  
Musical Practices

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework of Black musical space for the five case studies on African American improvisers. This chapter defines what is meant by crossing bar lines relative to Black sociality represented in the musical practices.

Anti-Black Racism and Historical Trauma: Pushing the Positive Youth Development Paradigm

2021 ◽  
pp. 0044118X2110078
Author(s):  
Anna Ortega-Williams ◽  
Troy Harden
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Positive Youth Development ◽  
African American Youth ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Youth Work ◽  
Developmental Needs ◽  
Development Paradigm

Positive youth development (PYD), while embraced in many sectors of youth work, has faced criticism for its primary emphasis on positive personal change and adaptation, without a strong emphasis on social justice and culture, especially relevant for African Americans. Additional models of PYD addressing these conceptual gaps have emerged, however few explicitly address anti-Black racism and historical trauma impacting African American youth development. In this paper, expanded models of PYD, specifically Empowerment-Based Positive Youth Development (EBPYD) and Critical Positive Youth Development (CPYD) will be examined for their strengths and limitations in responding to (1) anti-Black racism and (2) historical trauma among African American youth. Key strategies of these models, such as promoting prosocial behavior and civic engagement will be reconceptualized and expanded to account for developmental needs imposed by historical oppression and contemporary racism against African American youth. Implications for PYD programing will be discussed.

Engaging Social Justice Methods to Create Palliative Care Programs That Reflect the Cultural Values of African American Patients with Serious Illness and Their Families: A Path Towards Health Equity

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-230
Author(s):  
Ronit Elk ◽  
Shena Gazaway
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Serious Illness ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Healing Power

AbstractCultural values influence how people understand illness and dying, and impact their responses to diagnosis and treatment, yet end-of-life care is rooted in white, middle class values. Faith, hope, and belief in God’s healing power are central to most African Americans, yet life-preserving care is considered “aggressive” by the healthcare system, and families are pressured to cease it.

Strategies for Combating Erasure and Silencing

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Yelaine Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
African American ◽  
Racial Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Art And Activism

Curated by Yelaine Rodriguez and edited by Tatiana Flores, this Dialogues stages a series of conversations around Afro-Latinx art through interventions by Afro-Latina cultural producers. Black Latinxs often feel excluded both from the framework of latinidad as well as from the designation “African American.” The essays address blackness in a US Latinx context, through discussion of curatorial approaches, biographical reflections, art historical inquiry, artistic projects, and museum-based activism. Recent conversations around Latinxs and Black Lives Matter reveal that in the popular imaginary, Latinx presupposes a Brown identity. In their contributions to “Afro-Latinx Art and Activism,” the authors argue for a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of Latinx that does not reproduce the racial attitudes of the Lusophone and Hispanophone countries of Latin America, nor the black-white binary of the United States. They look forward to a time when the terms Afro or Black might cease to be necessary qualifiers of Latinx.

Crisis Counseling for Black Lives Matter Protests

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-211
Author(s):  
Darius A. Green ◽  
Brittany A. Williams ◽  
Kyulee Park
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Counseling Competencies ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Crisis Counseling ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Public Demonstration

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black individuals during the summer of 2020 was accompanied by widespread public demonstration and protest. Despite the peaceful nature of most demonstrations, data indicate that protesters experienced police violence at a disproportionate rate compared to demonstrations associated with other movements. Due to the crisis and unrest that undue police violence toward Black communities can cause, it is imperative that counselors identify ways to support communities in their collective acts toward resistance and liberation. This article reviews how counselors can integrate the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies and the American Counseling Association’s Advocacy Competencies into crisis counseling responses that support protesters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Coda

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-180
Author(s):  
Cameron Leader-Picone
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
American Literature ◽  
African American Literature ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Black Lives Matter

This coda briefly addresses the election of Donald Trump and the implications of an increasingly visible white nationalist movement on the arguments of the book. The coda also analyzes elements of the Black Lives Matter movement to argue that while much of the optimism of the post era has been mitigated, several of its major theoretical strains—the emphasis on individual agency over racial identity, the turn towards racial identity as performance—remain critical to understanding current activism. It also explains the influence of theoretical frameworks such as intersectionality and Afropessimism on current movements. The coda also looks briefly towards growing and ongoing trends in African American literature, like Afrofuturism.

Outro

Renegades ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 123-128
Author(s):  
Trevor Boffone
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
New Music ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Revolution

The Outro explores how the Renegades throughout this book used their social media platforms and clout to further social justice messages during the height of the renewed Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd in summer 2020. Renegade Zoomers played a significant role in celebrating Blackness and made many of these “moves” on social media. Whether it was through attending marches, creating viral dance challenges, or producing new music, Renegades positioned their creativity, joy, and labor as central to the movement for Black lives. Their work forced onlookers, moreover, to recognize the labor of Black girls in our social movements. Renegades reveal, ultimately, that the revolution will be digital.

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