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Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural Memory in Poetry

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Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural Memory in Poetry Université de Montréal In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural Memory in Poetry par Jean-Philippe Marcoux Département des Études Anglaises Faculté des Arts et Sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l’obtention du grade de Doctorat en Études Anglaises Septembre 2009 © Jean-Philippe Marcoux, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l’édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-59981-5 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-59981-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L’auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l’Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L’auteur conserve la propriété du droit d’auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author’s permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n’y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Université de Montréal Faculté des études supérieures Cette thèse intitulée : In the Circle : Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural Memory in Poetry présentée par : Jean-Philippe Marcoux a été évaluée par un jury composé des personnes suivantes : Dr. Heike Harting, président-rapporteur Dr. Caroline Brown, directeur de recherche Dr. Eric Savoy, membre du jury Dr. George Eliot Clarke, examinateur externe , représentant du doyen de la FES iii Résumé Ma thèse de doctorat, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry, étudie la façon dont les poètes afro-américains des années 1960 et 1970, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, et Amiri Baraka, emploient le jazz afin d’ancrer leur poésie dans la tradition de performance. Ce faisant, chacun de ces poètes démontre comment la culture noire, en conceptualisant à travers la performance des modes de résistance, fût utilisée par les peuples de descendance africaine pour contrer le racisme institutionnalisé et les discours discriminatoires. Donc, pour les fins de cette thèse, je me concentre sur quatre poètes engagés dans des dialogues poétiques avec la musicologie, l’esthétique, et la politique afro-américaines des années 1960 et 1970. Ces poètes affirment la centralité de la performativité littéraire noire afin d’assurer la survie et la continuité de la mémoire culturelle collective des afro-américains. De plus, mon argument est que la théorisation de l’art afro-américain comme engagement politique devient un élément central à l’élaboration d’une esthétique noire basée sur la performance. Ma thèse de doctorat propose donc une analyse originale des ces quatre poètes qui infusent leur poèmes avec des références au jazz et à la politique dans le but de rééduquer les générations des années 2000 en ce qui concerne leur mémoire collective. Mots-clés : poésie, afro-américaine, performance, jazz, politique, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, mémoire culturelle, esthétique noire iv Abstract My doctoral dissertation, In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry studies the ways in which African American poets of the 1960s and 1970s, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka employ jazz in order to ground their poetry in the tradition of performance. In so doing, each poet illustrates how black expressive culture, by conceptualizing through performance modes of resistance, has historically been used by people of African descent to challenge institutionalized racism and discriminatory discourses. Therefore, for the purpose of this dissertation, I focus on four poets who engage in dialogues with and about black musicology, aesthetics, and politics of the 1960s and 1970s; they assert the centrality of literary rendition for the survival and continuance of the collective cultural memory of Black Americans. In turn, I suggest that their theorization of artistry as political engagement becomes a central element in the construction of a Black Aesthetic based on performance. In the Circle: Jazz Griots and the Mapping of African American Cultural History in Poetry thus proposes an original analysis of how the four poets infused jazz and political references in their poetics in order to re-educate later generations about a collective black memory. Keywords : poetry, African American, performance, jazz, politics, Langston Hughes, David Henderson, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, cultural memory, Black Aesthetic v Table des matières Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter I: “The Sound of Grammar: Langston Hughes’s Roles as Jazz Griot and Archivist of Black Cultural History in Ask Your Mama” .................................................................... 38 I. The Griot Speaks of Rivers and Drums: Hughes’s Axiological Study of Blackness in Vernacular........................................................................................................................ 39 II. From Performance to Poem: Literalizing Blues Resistance and Jazz Defiance....... 52 III. (Re-)membering through Repetition: Jazz Techniques, and the Politics of Free Jazz Improvisation for the Refiguration of Black Cultural History......................................... 69 IV. Poeticizing Ancestry, Performing Memory: Cultural Continuity and Hughes as Griot/ Genealogist of the Black Aesthetic ....................................................................... 77 V. Tropings and Groupings: Artistry, Activism and the Horn(s) of Plenty.................. 91 VI. Bebop Memory: Towards Cultural Nationalism and the Sounds of the Riot....... 105 VII. “Keep on Soundin’:” The Dozens as Bebop Jazz Corollary and Agency of Cultural Nationalism ...................................................................................................... 117 Chapter II: “Move On Up: Rhythm and Blues, Jazz and Harlem Geographies in David Henderson’s De Mayor of Harlem” ................................................................................... 129 I. Authenticity, Soul, and Literalized Musical Performances of Black Self- Determination in Harlem................................................................................................ 133 II. Rhythm and Blues Politics: Conceptualizing the Harlem Riot of 1964 as a Map of Dreams Deferred and Kaleidoscope of Cultural Nationalism........................................ 150 III. Jazz Sounds and Decorations: Tone and Improvisation as Thematic and Structural Devices in Henderson’s Poetry. ..................................................................................... 168 IV. A Way through the Critical Mist: Polyrhythms in “Elvin Jones Grestch Freak” . 183 V. From Coltrane to Malcolm X: Aesthetics and Politics as Nationalisms................ 192 Chapter III: “Sister in the Struggle: Sonia Sanchez, Jazz Agencies, and the Feminized Quest for a Communicative ‘Sound’ in Home Coming and We A BaddDDD People”..... 212 vi I. “Black Woman Freedomfighter”: Vernacular Ancestry and the Re-making of Tradition to tune of Free Jazz......................................................................................... 216 II. Feeling Herstory: Chanting, Griotism, and the Formulation of a Jazz Womanist Poetics ............................................................................................................................ 234 III. “You’re a Singer, but You Have Not Listened to the Songs:” Billie Holiday as Griotte and Blues Recuperations.................................................................................... 252 IV. A Synthesis in Black Arts Spirit Music: Reading “a/coltrane/poem” .................. 261 Chapter IV: “Birth of a Free Jazz Nation: Amiri Baraka’s Jazz Historiography of Black Nationalism from Black Magic to Wise Why’s Y’s.”......................................................... 291 I. After Malcolm: Cultural Nationalism or Griotism in the Making?......................... 299 II. Mountains, Dilemmas, Crises, and/or Destruction?: Theorizing Free Jazz in Baraka’s Black Arts Poetry...........................................................................................
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