Spoken Word Poetry and the Reclamation of “Chocolate City”
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Summer 2020 Place-Making Through Performance: Spoken Word Poetry and the Reclamation of “Chocolate City” Tiffany Marquise Jones Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Jones, T. M.(2020). Place-Making Through Performance: Spoken Word Poetry and the Reclamation of “Chocolate City”. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5992 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PLACE-MAKING THROUGH PERFORMANCE: SPOKEN WORD POETRY AND THE RECLAMATION OF “CHOCOLATE CITY” by Tiffany Marquise Jones Bachelor of Business Administration Georgia Southern University, 2003 Master of Arts Georgia State University, 2008 Master of Arts University of South Carolina, 2016 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2020 Accepted by: Jennifer Reynolds, Major Professor Sherina Feliciano-Santos, Committee Member Kimberly Simmons, Committee Member Tracey Weldon Stewart, Committee Member Anthony K. Webster, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Tiffany Marquise Jones, 2020 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION I am the byproduct of so many wonderful mentors and thinkers, particularly the women who shaped and influenced me, prayed and fought for me, as well as encouraged and pushed me forward. This is for you: Mommy(head), Mudear, & Gwen(nie-poo). Know that I love you to the moon and back, and then some! For those ancestors that fought and aspired for these kinds of educational opportunities and achievements. Thank you for enduring endless subjugation and brutality so that I could chase and capture dreams. And for the future generations of Blackademics, especially women, who will embark upon this PhD journey… I pushed so that you could too! This is for y’all! iii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I first would like to acknowledge the sources that funded this endeavor, from preliminary research and then ethnographic fieldwork through the year of writing it took to finalize this work. These sponsors include the Office of the Vice President for Research at UofSC, the Institution of African American Research (IAAR) at UofSC, the Bilinski Education Foundation and the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Without the Support to Promote Advancement of Research and Creativity (SPARC) grant, the IAAR Fellowship, the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinksi Fellowship, as well as the Minority Dissertation Award, respectively, this research would not have been possible. I offer my earnest gratitude for supporting anthropological studies and/or for promoting minority scholars. We, in the Humanities, particularly Blackademics, need funding sources like these. Thank you for letting me be an example for other scholar of color inside academe. Aside from funding, this endeavor would not have been possible without a wonderful group of people that have supported me the entire way through. To my Dissertation Committee, Drs. Sherina Feliciano-Santos, Kimberly Simmons, Tracey Weldon Stewart, Anthony K. Webster, and especially my chair, Dr. Jennifer Reynolds: I just want to thank you all for pushing so hard to the finish to accomplish what felt like an impossible timeline. I attempted to capture a small reflection of how much I have learned from you directly and via your example of scholarly excellence. To faculty members at UofSC, especially Drs. Sharon DeWitte, Joanna Casey, David Simmons, and Elaine iv Chun. Whether it was in class or in the personal moments in between, know that your advice and mentorship is just one of the few reasons I survived with some sense of confidence and sanity. Your support will never be forgotten. And, to my teachers / mentors beyond the walls of UofSC: Drs. Jen Roth Gordon, Debra Vidali, Amanda Beth Godbee, and Erica Britt. Thank you for viewing me not just as a mentee but as a future scholar and colleague in training. Often, it becomes easy to overlook people behind the scenes. But considering my path to the PhD was very much a winding road, full of administrative hiccups and pitfalls along the way, I know – more than anyone – I / we, in the ANTH department at UofSC are a product of two unsung heroes: Claudia Carriere and Cat Keegan (RIP). You wonderful women deserve so much praise and every award there is for your work and assistance. Consider this my standing ovation for all that you have done for me and for Anthropology (students). To my many cheerleaders, allies, and fellow warriors in the trenches, let me take a moment to just acknowledge you, my village and teammates (in no order, of course): Drs. Briana Farber, Anais Parada, Kristina Zarenko, Andrew Agha, Andria Smythe and Bridgett Neamo; future Drs. Kim Overmier, Briana Cornelius, and Juliane Bilotta; as well as Lara Gold McGuiness, Michelle Nix, Tracey Jackson, Ashley King, Lenora White, Desiree Holly, Franchesca Howell, Marcus Lowe, Kelsie Gillig, Michelle Hurtubise and so many friends, far and wide who are impossible to call out by name. Thank you for choosing to walk with me, sometimes “in spirit.” Every meal, conversation, and writing session helped me push forward when I thought I could not take another step. v To my family, both in blood and bond, Dad (Joe Jones the III), Grandma Gertrude Jones, Stephanie George, Mellissa Hickman, Moniqueka Rucker, Joe Jones IV, Addis Jones, Brittany Butler, Aunt Emma (Butler), Aunt Drucilla Hoyle, Donna Hoyle, Brittany Bryan, Mama Pam, as well as my Beulah Missionary Baptist and Elevation church family: I love you so much. Thank you for the calls and check-ins to remind me that there were so many rooting for my success. To the Busboys and Poets (BBP) and SpitDat D.C. (SDDC) community, particularly Pages Matam, Alisha Byrd, Drew Anderson, and Dwayne Lawson-Brown as well as the many participants who allowed me into your worlds and into your art: Where would I be without you! I hope this work is just a starting point of reflecting how important your work is for Academia / Anthropology, the Arts, and for D.C. Thank you for telling your stories and sharing your work through me and this research. You truly are “modern-day griots.” Please continue sharing your art; the world is better for it! And last but definitely not least, to my Lola (aka Lolipops) and Riley (aka Ry Bear). My furbabies have seen me through the good, bad, and ugly of this whole experience as well as FIVE moves from Atlanta, GA to Washington, D.C. to Silver Spring, MD to Columbia S.C., back to D.C. and now Chicago! Man’s best friends? Nah … that does not even begin to cover it. You are my bratty little angels. You are my heart! Me love you much kiddos! vi ABSTRACT Predominantly situated in an area formerly known as Black Broadway, my research is based on long-term immersion in the District’s network of Spoken Word poetry and poets. Specifically, I focus on two key sites that offer contrasting depictions of open mic culture: Busboys and Poets, a D.C.-based chain located in several well-known neighborhoods undergoing gentrification, and SpitDat D.C., a grassroots (and often displaced) movement known as the area’s longest running open mic series. At these venues, many artists – especially native and long-term residents of the area – illustrate the Black experience along with a fascinating correlation between place, performer, and performance, specifically where place is being denied or redeveloped. By utilizing a scalar analysis of “place,” where I consider how the design, layout, and purpose of a venue; the geographical setting (e.g., region or neighborhood), or the mood / atmosphere are all salient influences on the performance event, this research showcases Spoken Word’s affinity for the performative act of “placemaking” – an urban- planning studies concept borrowed to illuminate the reciprocal (and sometimes toxic) relationship between D.C.’s Black inhabitants and policymakers. In its original context, placemaking is an approach to redevelopment used to embolden citizens to design and/or revitalize a community for “maximized shared value” (Project for Public Spaces). vii However, this research employs thematic, discourse, as well as interactionist approaches to verbal art as performance – to create a thick description of Spoken Word poetry and highlight placemaking as an empowering linguistic social act by which local artists fight to own, (re)claim, and/or move about freely in spaces they belong. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. xiii List of Abbreviations .........................................................................................................xv