On Wendesday, Nov. 17 at noon, Dr. Earl Brooks will discuss the rhetoric of gospel music legend Mahalia Jackson as part of the Dresher Center's series CURRENTS: Humanities Work Now. Dr. Brooks' presentation will follow a presentation by Kelley Bell (Visual Arts) about working with a master automata artist in England.
Move On Up a Little Higher: The Rhetoric of Mahalia Jackson
Earl Brooks, Assistant Professor, English; Dresher Center Summer 2020 Faculty Fellow
Mahalia Jackson’s mastery of the gospel sound became a critical element of the Black freedom struggle. This book chapter from his upcoming book, Black Sonority: Rhetoric and Black Music, frames Jackson as a rhetorician par excellence while exploring the larger role of gospel music in public discourse. Brooks argues Jackson’s unique sound became an ideological and religious site of consensus, as well as a sonic commonplace between various strands of black music.
Earl Brooks, Assistant Professor, English; Dresher Center Summer 2020 Faculty Fellow
Mahalia Jackson’s mastery of the gospel sound became a critical element of the Black freedom struggle. This book chapter from his upcoming book, Black Sonority: Rhetoric and Black Music, frames Jackson as a rhetorician par excellence while exploring the larger role of gospel music in public discourse. Brooks argues Jackson’s unique sound became an ideological and religious site of consensus, as well as a sonic commonplace between various strands of black music.
