Performances of “Blackness”

1. Performances of “Blackness” An examination of E. patrickjohnson’sappropriating blackness: “nevah had uh cross word”: mammy and the trope of black womanhood & Sounds of blackness down under: the café of the gate of salvation Molly andrews & Sara schriefer

2. Mammy and the Trope of Black Womanhood Part I By Molly Andrews

3. Black Authenticity in Performance • Johnson looks at the performance and construction of the Black “mammy” through interviews with his Grandmother Mary. • Addresses how the “black domestic” is represented in culture by reviewing other scholarly literature on the black “mammy”.

4. Johnson • “In this chapter, I examine such a reappropriation by illuminating the ways in which my grandmother’s performance of “mammy” in her oral narrative about her days as a live-in maid avows and disavows that prototypical image” 105

5. Prototypical image? • “ Dinahs”, “Aunt Jemimas” and “Mrs. Butterworths”105 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFlAV5Y94nc&feature=PlayList&p=B16BDF23408DF54A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13 • “childlike, subservient, promiscuous, sassy and whose mission in life is to serve her mistress and mistresses family”106 • “happy to make your pancakes and wash your clothes”106

6. Performance of “mammy” • “ the movement toward and construction of a more “trusting” relationship between the domestic and her employer is frequently satisfying to both parties. On the other hand, because the domestic’s economic livelihood is dependent on her employer’s needs and satisfaction, her position is always subordinate to that of her employer”108

7. Mammy as Trickster • The idea of the double sided domestic (Mammy), originating from ancient West-African Cultures- the priest/priestess of trickery and masking. • Like priestess of trickery, the domestic is often a “duplicitous, doubled mouthed, bilingual boundary crosser as well”.109

8. Mary Rhyne: a “trickster” narrative • Four key characteristics stand out in Mary’s narrative: • Her domestic work was physically demanding with low pay • Non-monetary compensation combined with the Smith’s as “very nice people”= part of employee/employer contract • Mary took pride in her work • Mary’s experience as a domestic influences her post-work life

9. Mary Rhyne: An Authentic Black Image • “Ah Done Ol’ an’ Broke Down” • Hard physical labor • Yet, kind treatment and relations with family “compensate” • Authorizing Power “Like One of the Family” • Non-monetary compensation, like hand-me-downs and home-ware, but also a part in the family- most symbolically the dinner table. • Had tremendous influence in the Smith household, reaffirmed her identity and strengths in her narrative.

10. Mary Rhyne: An Authentic Black Image • “Proud Mary”: the Valuing of Domestic Work • Unlike the stereotypically “mammy” image, Mary did have a breaking point • Took self pride in honesty and trustworthiness- again an aspect that created an authentic black image for Mary. • “Homeplace” After Domestic Work • Her experiences and actions within the eighteen years in the Smith household tremendously shaped her life at Tate Terrace from her established sense of authority to self-determination.

11. Performing the “Other”: WhiteBlackness &Black Whiteness Part II An Examination of the Café of the Gate of Salvation Gospel Chorus and other White Performances of “Black” Music By Sara Schriefer

12. African American Gospel Gospel is music that is written to: express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, and to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. • Performances are characterized by movement, energy, spirit • Mutual relationship between audience and performers: “clapping hands, rocking bodies, and stomping feet that shook the church’s… floorboards.”

13. "... a spontaneity and dynamism ... a tight ensemble that engages and inspires the audience by its enthusiasm, high energy sound and original material."Barry Walmsley, Newcastle Herald The Café of the Gate of Salvation

14. E. Patrick Johnson- Black Gospel Down Under • Rejection: Difficulty accepting performance as “authentic” • Australian gospel singers romanticize black gospel music and black American history • Australian Media: Sexism, exoticization and fetishization of white Australian gospel music • Performing the “Other” • Gospel as a sphere for Australian cultural expression • Acceptance: Dialogic Performance

15. Performance of the “Other” • “I’ve always sung music that comes from a black tradition. So if it’s not soul, it’s funk, or reggae. So I think black music touches me in some way, I don’t know why that is, a white Jewish girl from Sydney, what can I say, them’s in my roots.” -Tracey, Café of the Gate of Salvation

16. Judith Carson “When Judith placed those sights, sounds, and rhythms in her body, her body responded in way that empowered her to find her own voice by singing with and through Others’ voices. Her ‘transformation’ was emotional, psychological, and physical…. Her ‘broken’ voice was ‘healed’ through the ‘miracle’ and power of gospel” (pg. 210).

17. Dialogic Performance • The audience, the performers and the subject being performed • “Each time the choir performs gospel music they participate in what has become one of the most recognizable signifiers of black culture… They perform blackness when they sing… The performance of their own and the Others’ identity, however, is never a static process but rather one of flux and flow- of possibilities.” (218)

18. Establishing their “authentic” voice “Blackness” is established when the black audience approves of the performance: "This blurring of subjectivities in the symbolic space of performance foregrounds and the discursive nature of identity… the Australian choir and the black listening audience participated in the co production of blackness. Thus for all intents and purposes the Cafe of Gate of Salvation in face of evidence to the contrary ‘became’ black" (pg. 216).

19. Performing “blackness” Cafe of the Gate of Salvation Performance

20. Other Performances of Black Gospel Heritage Mass Choir “Taking their inspiration from Afro-American church music, the Heritage Mass Choir presents original Korean Gospel music .” Video: My Desire is to Worship God

21. Examining White Blackness Performancesin Popular Music

22. Applying White Blackness to Popular Music White artists’ adoption and performance of “black” music: • White artists enter black culture • Adopting elements of “black” music: • Soul • Hip-hop • Jazz • “An all-white, mostly atheist Australian gospel choir- at first it sounds contradictory. Yet, when situated in contested contexts of “blackness” and “performance” white Australian, atheist gospel singers are no more contradictory than black gay republicans. Indeed we live out the contradictions of our lives” (pg. 161).

23. Interracial Collaborations • White performances of “blackness” are legitimized and solidified when black artists choose to collaborate with them. • Collaborations between black and white artists that yield and/or reflect “black” music establishes and authenticates the white artist within the black culture and community.

24. Disparity between the prominence of white artists performing “black” music and black artists performing “white” music However, the collaboration of black artists who interject “black” music into “white” music has yielded a new genre of music and performance Coldplay and Jay-Z collaboration: Coldplay feat. Jay Z- "Lost" The Other side of Performing the “Other”

25. Now for a bit of humor…. John Stewart on White Blackness- Larry Wilmore enlists the help of Robin Thicke to show kids there is hope for white people… Robin Thicke on the Daily Show- “White In America”