Subversion

Harriet Tubman freed over 300 enslaved people in her travels through the underground railroad. She used song as a way to send coded messages regarding escape plans. For example, the song Wade in the Water, was a message to hide in the water to avoid being seen.

Creative Counter-narratives and Subtexts

James Brown released “Say It Loud” in 1968 against the backdrop of social unrest. Just four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and at a time where proximity to whiteness was viewed as proximity to worth) Brown made an anthem that celebrated Blackness. A blend of funk and soul, this song was an instant hit.

True Dat by Outkast, released in 1994, outlines that to be Outkast (outcast) is to be othered, alienated and puts this in conversation with living under “the crooked American system.” The piece is at once a rebuke to dominant culture and a re(claiming) of outcast status.

Disrupting Dominant Narratives and Assumptions

Black artists have across generations and genre challenged normative assumptions about gender, sexuality and in addition to other intersectional identities. This challenging through artistic expression has been necessary dis/ruption and freedom practice.

Performance as Critical Analysis and Social Commentary

Performance as Protest

“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”
― Angela Y. Davis

At every turn, music and performance have been foundational and core to calls and movements for justice. Black people(s) have a long history of impacting change through performance activism.