An examination of E. patrick johnsons appropriating blackness:

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Performances of Blackness

• An examination of E. patrick johnsons
  appropriating blackness
• nevah had uh cross word mammy and the trope of
  black womanhood
• Sounds of blackness down under the café of the
  gate of salvation
• Molly andrews Sara schriefer

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Mammy and the Trope of Black Womanhood
Part I

• By Molly Andrews

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Black Authenticity in Performance

• Johnson looks at the performance and construction
  of the Black mammy through interviews with his
  Grandmother Mary.
• Addresses how the black domestic is represented
  in culture by reviewing other scholarly
  literature on the black mammy.

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Johnson

• In this chapter, I examine such a
  reappropriation by illuminating the ways in which
  my grandmothers performance of mammy in her
  oral narrative about her days as a live-in maid
  avows and disavows that prototypical image 105

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Prototypical image?

• Dinahs, Aunt Jemimas and Mrs.
  Butterworths105
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vrFlAV5Y94ncfeature
  PlayListpB16BDF23408DF54Aplaynext1playnext_f
  romPLindex13
• childlike, subservient, promiscuous, sassy and
  whose mission in life is to serve her mistress
  and mistresses family106
• happy to make your pancakes and wash your
  clothes106

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Performance of mammy

• the movement toward and construction of a more
  trusting relationship between the domestic and
  her employer is frequently satisfying to both
  parties. On the other hand, because the
  domestics economic livelihood is dependent on
  her employers needs and satisfaction, her
  position is always subordinate to that of her
  employer108

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Mammy as Trickster

• The idea of the double sided domestic (Mammy),
  originating from ancient West-African Cultures-
  the priest/priestess of trickery and masking.
• Like priestess of trickery, the domestic is often
  a duplicitous, doubled mouthed, bilingual
  boundary crosser as well.109

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Mary Rhyne a trickster narrative

• Four key characteristics stand out in Marys
  narrative
• Her domestic work was physically demanding with
  low pay
• Non-monetary compensation combined with the
  Smiths as very nice people part of
  employee/employer contract
• Mary took pride in her work
• Marys experience as a domestic influences her
  post-work life

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Mary Rhyne An Authentic Black Image

• Ah Done Ol an Broke Down
• Hard physical labor
• Yet, kind treatment and relations with family
  compensate
• Authorizing Power Like One of the Family
• Non-monetary compensation, like hand-me-downs and
  home-ware, but also a part in the family- most
  symbolically the dinner table.
• Had tremendous influence in the Smith household,
  reaffirmed her identity and strengths in her
  narrative.

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Mary Rhyne An Authentic Black Image

• Proud Mary the Valuing of Domestic Work
• Unlike the stereotypically mammy image, Mary
  did have a breaking point
• Took self pride in honesty and trustworthiness-
  again an aspect that created an authentic black
  image for Mary.
• Homeplace After Domestic Work
• Her experiences and actions within the eighteen
  years in the Smith household tremendously shaped
  her life at Tate Terrace from her established
  sense of authority to self-determination.

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Performing the Other White Blackness Black
Whiteness
Part II

• An Examination of the Café of the Gate of
  Salvation Gospel Chorus and other White
  Performances of Black Music
• By Sara Schriefer

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African American Gospel

• Gospel is music that is written to express
  either personal or a communal belief regarding
  Christian life, and to give a Christian
  alternative to mainstream secular music.
• Performances are characterized by movement,
  energy, spirit
• Mutual relationship between audience and
  performers
• clapping hands, rocking bodies, and stomping
  feet that shook the churchs floorboards.

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The Café of the Gate of Salvation

• "... a spontaneity and dynamism ... a tight
  ensemble that engages and inspires the audience
  by its enthusiasm, high energy sound and original
  material."Barry Walmsley, Newcastle Herald

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E. Patrick Johnson- Black Gospel Down Under

• Rejection Difficulty accepting performance as
  authentic
• Australian gospel singers romanticize black
  gospel music and black American history
• Australian Media Sexism, exoticization and
  fetishization of white Australian gospel music
• Performing the Other
• Gospel as a sphere for Australian cultural
  expression
• Acceptance Dialogic Performance

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Performance of the Other

• Ive always sung music that comes from a black
  tradition. So if its not soul, its funk, or
  reggae. So I think black music touches me in some
  way, I dont know why that is, a white Jewish
  girl from Sydney, what can I say, thems in my
  roots.
• -Tracey, Café of the Gate of Salvation

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Judith Carson

• When Judith placed those
• sights, sounds, and rhythms
• in her body, her body
• responded in way that
• empowered her to find her
• own voice by singing with and
• through Others voices. Her
• transformation was
• emotional, psychological, and
• physical. Her broken voice
• was healed through the
• miracle and power of gospel
• (pg. 210).

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Dialogic Performance

• The audience, the performers and the subject
  being performed
• Each time the choir performs gospel music they
  participate in what has become one of the most
  recognizable signifiers of black culture They
  perform blackness when they sing The performance
  of their own and the Others identity, however,
  is never a static process but rather one of flux
  and flow- of possibilities. (218)

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Establishing their authentic voice

• Blackness is established when the black
  audience approves of the performance
• "This blurring of subjectivities in the symbolic
  space of
• performance foregrounds and the discursive nature
  of
• identity the Australian choir and the black
  listening
• audience participated in the co production of
• blackness. Thus for all intents and purposes the
  Cafe of
• Gate of Salvation in face of evidence to the
  contrary
• became black" (pg. 216).

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Performing blackness

• Cafe of the Gate of Salvation Performance

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Other Performances of Black Gospel

• Heritage Mass Choir
• Taking their inspiration from Afro-American
  church music, the Heritage Mass Choir presents
  original Korean Gospel music .
• Video My Desire is to Worship God

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Examining White Blackness Performances in
Popular Music
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Applying White Blackness to Popular Music

• White artists adoption and performance of
  black music
• White artists enter black culture
• Adopting elements of black music
• Soul
• Hip-hop
• Jazz
• An all-white, mostly atheist Australian gospel
  choir- at first it sounds contradictory. Yet,
  when situated in contested contexts of
  blackness and performance white Australian,
  atheist gospel singers are no more contradictory
  than black gay republicans. Indeed we live out
  the contradictions of our lives (pg. 161).

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Interracial Collaborations

• White performances of
• blackness are legitimized and
• solidified when black artists
• choose to collaborate with
• them.
• Collaborations between black
• and white artists that yield
• and/or reflect black music
• establishes and authenticates the
• white artist within the black
• culture and community.

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The Other side of Performing the Other

• Disparity between the prominence of white
  artists performing black music and black
  artists performing white music
• However, the collaboration of black artists who
  interject black music into white music has
  yielded a new genre of music and performance
• Coldplay and Jay-Z collaboration Coldplay feat.
  Jay Z- "Lost"

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Now for a bit of humor.

• John Stewart on White Blackness- Larry Wilmore
  enlists the help of Robin Thicke to show kids
  there is hope for white people
• Robin Thicke on the Daily Show- White In America