Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Communication

Committee Chair

Andre Johnson

Committee Member

Antonio deVelasco

Committee Member

Christina Moss

Committee Member

Christopher House

Abstract

Call and Response is a common production and performance within the African/African American community. Traditionally, it has been synonymous with African/African American preaching/oratory and African/African American music (spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, soul, and rap). When the discourse of Call and Response is engaged often, it is regulated to these two major contexts. Unfortunately, this is a common and unostentatious understanding of Call and Response in the primary sectors of the African/African American (A/AA) community. The discourse of Call and Response outside of preaching and music within the densely populated African and African American life provides limited discourse of conceptualization and articulation of Call and Response in other facets of A/AA existence. In other words, on the streets of Harlem, Atlanta, Memphis, Houston, and Oakland, locations heavily saturated with Black bodies. It is highly unlikely that those who would be able to speak about Call and Response beyond the Black music and the Black church preaching/oratory with conviction will be found. On the surface, it would appear there is no justification to study or entertain the production and performance of Call and Response beyond its traditional understanding, moreover when it has not received ample inquiry from within the Lakeshas, Yolandas, Ebonys(i), Jamals, Tyrones, and Andres of the African American community. However, at this juncture, this work asks questions about Call and Response and its production and performance beyond music and preaching/oratory. Does Call and Response come online in other segments and contexts within the A/AA community? Where and how are the production and performance of Call and Response articulated beyond traditional themes? What are the benefits of Call and Response produced and performed in other spaces of African American life? Why is Call and Response paramount to reach beyond the role of music and preaching/oratory? The use of textual analysis (close reading) and the critique of vernacular are the methods that will be employed to aid in investigating these questions and propositions. To assist in fleshing out these questions and providing resolutions, The Montgomery Riverfront Brawl (MRB) serves as an ideal text. First, it is a recent event that requires little in-depth complex research. The vast majority of the African American community has witnessed this event on a variety of mediums; the same can be said about a healthy number of white communities. Second, the MRB is unique as this event addresses four major aspects of A/AA life. The MRB and this work confirm that Call and Response is not only a crucial component to African/African American music and preaching/oratory, but it is also found vibrancy in the segments of history, spirituality, social movements, and media/technology in the Black community. To that end, the MRB articulates how it employs and relies on the production and performance of Call and Response in the making and completion of its narrative. The aftermath of the MRB equality encompasses means that support Call and Response out of traditional strongholds. In short, Call and Response is produced and performed in the major events of Black life but also takes up residents in the mundane of a Tuesday afternoon. Essentially, Call and Response has never been what Africans/African Americans do; it is who they were, are, and are becoming.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

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Notes

Open access.

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