Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School April 2020 Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam Joshua Hamzehee Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Acting Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, Performance Studies Commons, Playwriting Commons, Poetry Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Social Influence and oliticalP Communication Commons Recommended Citation Hamzehee, Joshua, "Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam" (2020). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 5238. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/5238 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. BATON ROUGE SLAM!: AN OBITUARY FOR SUMMER 2016: A CRITICAL PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY OF ECLECTIC TRUTH POETRY SLAM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agriculture and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In The Department of Communication Studies by Joshua Hamzehee A.A., Mt. San Antonio College, 2007 B.A., California State University, Fullerton, 2008 M.A., California State University, Long Beach, 2010 May 2020 © 2020 Joshua Hamzehee ii For Kaiya. I know we never met—but I am better for having known you through people you knew. For Donney & Desireé & Jazmyne & Melissa & Toiryan & for Baton Rouge & Eclectic Truth & summer 2016 & before & after— iii Recomposition through art functions as a kind of mourning—an obituary that completes the life-death cycle and restores a sense of wholeness to the community. But recomposition is also a disavowal: the dead do not come back to life except as icons. --Diana Taylor, Disappearing Acts (Also, this quotation was presented as the opening visual projection for Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016) iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My final course as a Louisiana State University graduate student was taken during spring 2018. This was about eighteen months after beginning my ethnographic journey with the Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam community and five of its core members. In the course, A Social History of Spoken Word Poetry, Dr. Susan Weinstein exposed my classmates and me to Audre Lorde’s 1985 essay, “Poetry is Not a Luxury.” In poignant poetic prose, Lorde exclaims poetry helps manifest that which has not happened. I interpret this to mean, first, that poetry is a canvass to explore possibilities. And second, poetry shows that the labor of societal progress begins with inspiration. Inspired educators like Dr. Weinstein, critical scholarship like Lorde’s, and performance communities like those in Baton Rouge show we are defined as people by what we hope for, and how that affects others. Lorde also writes “poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives.” Progress is only possible because of the time, energy, and heart contributed by other fleshy-skeletons. We are bone and muscle; performing for and with another is sinew. As a tendonic ethnographer, I acknowledge this three-year exploration incorporates countless hours of combined fieldwork from multiple angles and people. For example, this fieldwork originated with the slam poets who shared their perspectives. After being filtered through my ethnographic lens, their narratives were given new life by a passionate cast, supported by a dedicated crew, and guided by mentors who laid the foundation for the paths of each project participant to merge in this city at this specific time in our lives. Performance ethnography, like slam, is not created or presented in a vacuum. First and foremost, this Baton Rouge-based project is possible because Eclectic Truth poets shared their lived and lyrical experiences with me. Snaps all the way to the mic for v Donney Rose, Desireé Dallagiacamo, Toiryan Milligan, Jazmyne Smith, and Melissa Hutchinson! I encourage you, the reader of this dissertation, to type their names and “Baton Rouge” into Google or YouTube and follow Alice down the slam poetry rabbit-hole. This document draws primarily from the voices of these five aforementioned star groupers, a term coined by Victor Turner to refer to members of a culture that deeply identify with and sacrifice their time for that culture. I also had the privilege of interacting and being inspired by several other community members. First, Petrouchka Moïse—thank you for sitting with me and sharing the story of your daughter, Kaiya, your art and goals, Kaiya’s poetry and passions, and bringing yourself and your son to support the show. Your presence there mattered more than you can imagine! Next, more snaps for Xero Skidmore, SK Groll, Anna West, William Brian Sain, Toi Sibley, and so many others I had the pleasure of befriending through attending Eclectic Truth and living in Baton Rouge. Your dedication to community, growth, and equity is contagious, and the clearest example of why inspiration, performance, and mentorship matters beyond pages and stages. Through observing essential and inspired Baton Rouge creative- and youth-oriented organizations like The Poetry Alliance, Forward Arts, and Humanities Amped, I learned progress is a chain forever linked to those who came before. Deepest thanks to my dissertation advisor and graduate school mentor, Dr. Tracy Stephenson Shaffer. Snaps for guiding me through performance ethnography’s “primordial world.” Janis Joplin’s “Me & Bobby McGee” was part of the show’s soundtrack because of you! Next, my dissertation committee: Dr. David Terry, Dr. Sue Weinstein, and Dean’s Representative, Dr. Deborah Goldgaber. From my initial graduate course in performance ethnography, to completing coursework, to guiding my comprehensive exams, to office visits in vi between and during productions, to a pleasant doctoral defense, your consistent support is integral to my growth as a scholar, practitioner, and human being. Essential to Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016 is the dedication of the cast. Snaps to Lexus Jordan, Laura Oliver, Montana Smith, and Jordan Smith! Thank you for your trust, talents, time, and spirits. I am grateful for the DMX sessions before shows, your commitment to the cause, our workdays that became playdays, and your engraved wooden gift of “Artistic Journalist” after our first production run. Emblematic of my experience with Eclectic Truth is how we performed the last minute of the script during each performance of the show. Following the heaviest moment of the production, as a collective we huddled around the lighted-microphone hung from the ceiling. Framed by a taped-outline of Louisiana, we each touched and turned a page of the sacred “Question of the Day!” slam journal. This journal contained star grouper poems that were hand-written by us, featured audience signatures and responses to the question of the day, and stood in as a call back to the texts and traditions of performance scholarship and slam culture that shaped Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As such, to open this dissertation, I offer this final section of the final scene of our show as my sacrificial poem: DONNEY We’re not gonna stay in the aesthetic of sorrow forever. There’s a beauty that comes from creating from despair. It pushes you toward joy. TOIRYAN Donney said it best when he went to represent us in Flagstaff. He put Baton Rouge on the stage. He put the flood poems, Alton Sterling, Kaiya, on the stage. DONNEY Whether you talk about natives or transplants, we are by and large a resilient community. ALL We are people who shake back from hurricanes and floods. JAZMYNE Katrina, MELISSA Gustav, DESIREÉ BP oil spill. vii TOIRYAN I’m afraid of lightning! DONNEY We are also a joyous people. MELISSA There’s layers. Makes me think about Shrek. DESIREÉ When we want to flatten we don’t do the work we need to do. DONNEY We’re also a community of festivals, food, and letting the good times roll. MELISSA And drinking. DONNEY And that spirit of resiliency resonates with people who move here, who live here. TOIRYAN But, is there a deeper layer? [They think. TOI opens journal, showing the original poems, colorfully handwritten.] JAZMYNE The experience. [JAZ turns a page.] DESIREÉ I got to be in this space with these people. [DES turns a page.] MELISSA An immediate validation. [MEL turns a page.] TOIRYAN I got to share my truth. [TOI turns a page.] DONNEY We got three minutes to get on stage and [DON turns the page to “Timeline Trauma.”] ALL Make a piece of urgent art that will stick with the community after they leave the— [ALL look at journal, touching the journal. Then, together, ALL look up to the sky above the mic.] Often overlooked in performance scholarship is the show crew that becomes the backbone of black box theatre productions. Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016 viii was binded by the labor and support of a dedicated crew, so snaps for Assistant Director Patrick McElearney, HopKins Black Box Manager and Technical Consultant Chris Collins, Lighting Designer Greg Langner, Projection and Technical Consultant Naomi Bennett, Stage Manager and QLab Operator Shanna Lambert, Props Manager Taylor Dawson, Voiceover Consultant Hal Lambert, Video Consultant and QLab Operator Gabi Vigueria, and the LSU performance studies community that provided their time, bodies, and energies.