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Spoken Word Poetry As Political Engagement Among Young Adults in the Millennial Age

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Spoken Word Poetry As Political Engagement Among Young Adults in the Millennial Age ABSTRACT Title of Document: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: SPOKEN WORD POETRY AS POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN THE MILLENNIAL AGE Valerie L. Chepp, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Directed By: Professor Patricia Hill Collins Department of Sociology Civic and political disengagement is an often-cited distinguishing feature of young Americans today, collectively known as the millennial generation—i.e., those born between 1980 and 2000. Yet, measures of engagement often fail to consider how young people themselves define acting political. This dissertation investigates youth politics through the prism of spoken word performance poetry, an art form assigned social change attributes by its principal practitioners: young urban adults. This study asks: how do contemporary young adults use spoken word poetry to civically and politically engage? Using ethnographic research methods, I followed discourses and practices deployed in the Washington, D.C. spoken word poetry community that centered on social change. I identify three social change processes carried out by these young poets. First, through a process I call speaking truths, poets used spoken word to draw upon their lived experiences—their truths—as a political and moral source of knowledge that guided and legitimated their social change messages. Second, poets healed themselves and others by writing and performing their truths in the form of spoken word therapy narratives, thereby placing their community in a position to do sustainable social justice work. Third, using new school activist approaches, poets leveraged spoken word to advocate for social justice causes, build political networks, and mobilize others into political action. To frame this analysis, I integrate social change scholarship on (1) public sphere civic and political engagement, focusing on young adults, (2) culture and politics, concentrating on art and popular culture, and (3) the role of identity and narrative in social change. I introduce and develop the theoretical concept of creative politics as a way to situate the untraditional ways that young urban adults in Washington, D.C. politically and civically engaged: poets leveraged the unique properties of art as a way to speak truths, individually and collectively heal, and do new school activism. By doing so, poets honored their subjective truths and identities, and at the same time transcended these subjectivities in order to communicate more universal ideas about social justice and change. Specifically, a universal belief in the power of love guided the poets’ creative politics. SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: SPOKEN WORD POETRY AS POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT AMONG YOUNG ADULTS IN THE MILLENNIAL AGE By Valerie L. Chepp Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Advisory Committee: Professor Patricia Hill Collins, Chair Professor Melissa A. Milkie Associate Professor Dana R. Fisher Associate Professor Meyer Kestnbaum Associate Professor Laurie Frederik Meer © Copyright by Valerie Louise Chepp 2014 Dedication I dedicate this work to my mom and dad, for their endless support, love, and encouragement, and to the spoken word poets of Washington, D.C., for whom I have infinite admiration for their courage, talent, and conviction, and eternal gratitude for their kindness. ii Acknowledgements Many people made this project possible. First and foremost, I thank my advisor, mentor, and chair, Patricia Hill Collins. Without her unwavering support, belief, brilliance, and guidance, this project would not have come to fruition. Over the years, Dr. Collins has read countless drafts of this work, spent endless hours talking through my ideas with me, and always pushed me to engage the “big questions” evoked by this research. Words simply can’t express, even from this aspiring poet, my gratitude. I would also like to thank the members of my committee. I am indebted to Meyer Kestnbaum, especially for his early guidance and support of this project, particularly in its proposal stage, and for helping me think through my ideas about nontraditional forms of political engagement. I am grateful for Dana Fisher’s enthusiastic confidence in me, and for her insight and scholarship on youth, activism, and the public sphere. Laurie Frederik Meer has been an invaluable intellectual ally, providing critical feedback at various stages of this research and lending a rigorous interdisciplinary focus; I especially thank her for guiding me through the fascinating world of performance, narrative, and spoken word. My gratitude and admiration for Melissa Milkie is limitless. Dependable, perceptive, and amazingly humble despite her academic stature, Melissa’s approach to mentoring and intellectual work has been an inspiration. I would also like to thank Professor John Caughey for providing me with the intellectual space and support I needed to embark upon this research. The completion of this project was made more enjoyable and analytically rich due to the wisdom, humor, and unconditional support of many friends and colleagues. Lester Andrist provided helpful feedback on early drafts of this work; the ideas presented in this iii manuscript have benefited greatly from his critical curiosity, breadth of sociological knowledge, and friendship. Paul Dean’s ability to bring levity and order to any circumstance has pushed this project—and my scholarship more generally—to a level for which I’m forever grateful. This dissertation would not have been completed as happily or sanely without the support of Beverly Pratt and Denae Johnson, with whom I spent countless nights “couped” up; they pushed me to work (and laugh) to limits I didn’t know were possible. I thank the University of Maryland’s Graduate School for generously lending financial support to this research in the form of the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship and a Summer Research Fellowship. I’m also appreciative to the University of Maryland’s Sociology Department and various faculty for their support through the years, especially Bill Falk, Rashawn Ray, and Linda Moghadam. Special thanks to Karina Havrilla for helping me to navigate the university’s institutional bureaucracy; without her meticulous assistance, numerous balls would have inevitably dropped at various points throughout my graduate school career. There were others, outside of graduate school, who supported me throughout this project. I thank Audrey Sprenger for showing me how expansive—and impossibly cool— the world of sociology, pop culture, and ethnographic research can be. I thank Kristen Miller and the rest of my colleagues in the Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory at the National Center for Health Statistics for providing me with ample opportunities to hone my qualitative research skills, and for also lending me the flexibility and support I needed to carry out my Ph.D. commitments. I would be remiss if I didn’t also acknowledge the various yoga teachers throughout Washington, D.C. that helped me iv cultivate the physical, emotional, and mental well-being I needed to finish this dissertation still whole, healthy, and smiling. Special thanks to Dieu, Abby, Lisa, Rod, Rexx, and Krista, as well as Joy. I would also like to thank François Edouard who, perhaps more than anyone, witnessed the day-to-day struggles I, as anyone, endures when working on a project of this magnitude. I will be always be grateful to François for his ability to provide perspective, keep me grounded, and lend the perfect amount of distraction. I could not have finished this dissertation, let alone any of my other accomplishments, without the help and love of my family. I thank my mom and dad, Jean and Mark Chepp, as well as my brother, Andy, and all of my family in Milwaukee, especially Nanny, Grampy, Linda, and Tommy. Finally, to the poets of Washington, D.C., thank you for welcoming me into your “family.” From the beginning, you showed enthusiasm and support for this project. You generously and uninhibitedly gave me access to your poetry world; you let me tag along to your events, letting me ask countless questions along the way. Thank you, also, for gently and patiently encouraging me to find my own poetic voice and inner performer…I never knew she existed! I have carried the lessons I learned at your workshops, open mics, slams, and various poetry events into other domains of my public and private life. Thanks to you, performance poetry has deeply shaped my approach to research, teaching, and social change. Your energy, talent, and commitment to creating a more socially just world will forever serve as an inspiration. Thank you. v Table of Contents Dedication ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi Lists of Tables .................................................................................................................. viii Lists of Figures .................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1: Introduction: Art, Identity, and the Puzzling Nature of Youth Politics ...1 Setting the Stage ..............................................................................................................1
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