Black Sound, White Noise: An Autoethnographical Examination of the African American Musician
Issue Date
2019-12-31Author
Lewis, Allison Michele
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
81 pages
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
M.A.
Discipline
African/African-American Studies
Rights
Copyright held by the author.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Black Sound, White Noise is an autoethnographical examination of the American Music Educational system and the damaging effects its ideologies, practices, and abuses have on the African American student musician. The first chapter uses traditional African educational practices to understand how African American music is constructed. By understanding that African American music making is generationally maintained and purposefully created, I aim to de-essentialize African American musicality while supporting the idea that genre itself is an oppressive social construct. By understanding the hierarchy of not only race but genre, I show in chapter two how these constructs of genre and the oppressive practices of educating classical music work to create a system that not only abuses the African American student musician but others who are more vulnerable to those with power within the institution. In chapter three I attempt to apply the lens of traditional African educational practices while teaching singing to four middle school African American girls. Continuing with autoethnography, I examine my experience with teaching in this way and advocate for more creative and inclusive teaching techniques that value decolonizing the current American Educational system.
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