“Calvente breaks new ground in this compelling interdisciplinary study. Through a combination of theory and methods, she brings to light the poetics and praxis of oral history performance.” - D. Soyini Madison (author of Acts of Activism: Human Rights as Radical Performance) "In this thought-provoking book, Calvente argues for the critical role of stories in making and remaking worlds that privilege some at the expense of others. Using a compelling storyteller's subtlety and a meticulous ethnographer's eye, she offers an important contribution to communication and cultural studies that demonstrates some of the ways in which we speak our worlds-our <i>homespaces</i>-into tender, precarious, but decidedly realizable existence. <i>Moving Blackness </i>itself moves through colonial times and diasporic spaces to contextualize understandings of race/racism in the everyday and the existential."<br /> - John L. Jackson, Jr. (author of Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem)
Engaging with theories of anti-Black racism, modernity, coloniality, and the Black diaspora, the book frames storytelling and the circulation of narratives as performances deeply rooted in the everyday lives of Black people across the diaspora. Starting with an examination of the racial construction of movement during colonialism and slavery, the book traces how this history shapes contemporary interactions. With its exploration of how Black circulation transforms movement and space, the book introduces a forward-thinking approach to the Black diaspora, anchored in a politics of identification rather than being confined to the past or a specific location. Moving Blackness argues that the desire for homespace, a yearning for belonging that transcends any particular physical space, fuels this envisioned future, rooted in the historical and material conditions of racism and marginalization.
1 Nation-Place: Spatial Blackness and Racist Identification
2 The Limits of Mobility: Why Does the Circulation of Stories Matter Anyway?
3 Movin’ on Up: Mobile Traps and Mapping Performances of Homespace
4 Mobile Stories and Bounded Spaces: Stories Told and Telling Performances
5 Classroom Caravan: Popularizing Pedagogical Performances of Disorder
Conclusion: Remembering "The Score": Telling Stories of Blackness and Their Circulation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index