THE JOYFUL SOUNDS OF BEING YOUR OWN BLACK SELF By AMIR ASIM GILMORE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Teaching & Learning MAY 2019 © Copyright by AMIR ASIM GILMORE, 2019 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by AMIR ASIM GILMORE, 2019 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of AMIR ASIM GILMORE find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Pamela Jean Bettis, Ph.D., Chair Paula Groves Price, Ph.D. John Joseph Lupinacci, Ph.D. Anthony Gordon Rud Jr., Ph.D. Francene T. Watson, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT This project has truly been a labor of love, as it takes a village to write a dissertation. I would first like to thank my parents. Without them, none of this would be possible. I would like to thank my dad, Cleveland Gilmore for inviting me into the Black Study through jazz. It is through jazz, I developed the identity of being an Edtiste. I would like to thank my mom, Rosita Faulkner, for showing me how to refuse and what mundane refusal looks like as a daily practice. It was her refusal that helped guide me away from doing traditional social science research. How dope is it to say that your parents made the dissertation? Very dope! While the academy might recognize and acknowledge me as the first Ph.D. in my family, my mom and dad will always be the first doctors in my eyes. Moreover, I would like to thank my fabulous dissertation committee, who I call The A Team. Pam, Paula, Johnny, AG, and Fran, really allowed me to push the boundaries of what a dissertation could look like and sound like. The gave me the space to explore and experiment. I am thankful that I had the privilege to do so, because not every doctoral student does. Their guidance and advisement throughout this four year journey is truly beyond words. Even when times got tough, my morale was low, and I wanted to quit, they rallied behind me and believed in me. They invested a lot of invisible labor into me and this dissertation is a testament to that. Lastly, I want to thank all the mentors that I’ve had in my life. Their patience, their dedication, their investment in me, is truly beyond words. They did not owe me anything in this world, but gave me everything. They gave me life, love, and joy. They taught me how to be in relation with myselF, with others, and the world. I am forever indebted to them for saving my life, shaping my life, and simply being in my life. To be in relation is such a joyous thing. iii THE JOYFUL SOUNDS OF BEING YOUR OWN BLACK SELF Abstract By Amir Asim Gilmore, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2019 Chair: Pamela Jean Bettis What is Black Boy Joy? Black Boy Joy is a common project, a Black study of unbounded Blackness, the blurring of Blackness, the joys of Blackness, the joy of Black boys. Black Boy Joy emerges from the “bubbling” culmination of multiple Black theories and methodologies in the caldron of the Black Radical Tradition. Essentially, Black Boy Joy is a gumbo of praxis. Descending from the Black Radical Tradition, Black Boy Joy refuses the systems of whiteness and white supremacy by reclaiming Black stories, voices, and identities through the arts and humanities. Black Boy Joy is the quotidian refusal to stay in ones designated “place” and provides a space that gives Black males futures that they want now. As a blurred embodiment of various Black aesthetic expressions, including jazz improvisation, poetry, visual art, and griot culture, Black Boy Joy is a social and spiritual practice of saying no to the terms, codes, rules, and laws of white supremacy that subjugate Black males. Boyhood and joy are concepts that are systematically stolen and denied. Black boys are never fully given the spaces to be where they can explore their masculinity, femininity, sexuality, spirituality, and identity without limits. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE: ............................................................................................................................. 1 WHO CAN AFFORD TO IMPROVISE? ....................................................................................... 1 A Letter From The Edtiste To The Reader .................................................................................. 1 The Stakes Are High; We Cannot Afford Not To Improvise ...................................................... 2 Life As A Failed Ethnographer .................................................................................................... 5 Creating That “Feel” And “Sound” ............................................................................................. 8 Enter The Revolutionary Theater .............................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER TWO: .......................................................................................................................... 17 BLACK BOYS WILL NEVER BE FOR SALE ........................................................................... 17 The Prelude: Protest. Refusal. Joy. ............................................................................................ 17 Track #1: An Invitation to the Black Study: The Unrepayable Debt ........................................ 18 Track #2: Theorizing Refusal .................................................................................................... 21 Track # 3: The Black Radical Tradition .................................................................................... 24 The Interlude: The Black Arts Movement: Calling All Black People ....................................... 26 v Track # 4: The Origins of Black Boy Joy, Black Freedom & The Avant-Garde Jazz Tradition ................................................................................................................................................... 27 Track #5: Riffing Rift of Blackness ........................................................................................... 37 Track # 6: BLKARTSOUTH ..................................................................................................... 41 Track #7: Black Boy Joy: A Love Supreme and the Riffing Rift .............................................. 43 Track #8: The Case for BlackCrit .............................................................................................. 50 Track # 9: Afro-Pessimism & Antiblackness: The Social Death .............................................. 51 Track # 10: Antiblackness As The Wall .................................................................................... 56 Track # 11: Help Me I am the Prisoner: The Cry of Jazz .......................................................... 59 The Epilogue: Joy, Hauntings, and the Margins of the Anti-Black World ............................... 62 CHAPTER THREE: ...................................................................................................................... 67 THE BLACK BOY JOY MANIFESTO ....................................................................................... 67 The Prelude ................................................................................................................................ 67 Track 1: What Black Boy Joy Ain’t: Happiness ........................................................................ 69 Track 2: Bad Faith, Blackness, and Authenticity ...................................................................... 73 Track 3: What The Hell Is An Edtiste? ...................................................................................... 75 Track 4: The Process and the Product of the Edtiste ................................................................. 82 Track 5: Continuing The Jazz Aesthetic .................................................................................... 84 Track 6: Digging Through The Crates Of Black Invisibility Blues .......................................... 90 Track 7: The Importance of Black Feminism Within Black Boy Joy ....................................... 94 vi Track 8: The Illumination of Black Male-centered Writing .................................................... 100 Track 9: The Sounds and Feelings of The Man and Dog Show .............................................. 102 Track 10: The Revolutionary Theatre ...................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER FOUR: ...................................................................................................................... 109 BLACK BOYS WILL NEVER BE FOR SALE ......................................................................... 109 CAST OF CHARACTERS ...................................................................................................... 109 ACT I: Black Mother’s To Sons .............................................................................................. 111 ACT I, Scene I: The Dream ................................................................................................. 111 Act I, Scene Two: A Mother’s Words ................................................................................. 119 ACT II: School As A Site