Category: Uncategorized

When I sought up the definition of folk aesthetic, I landed across the term “folk art”. There was not a specific definition for folk aesthetic but for folk art it stated “FOLK ART is an expression of the world’s traditional cultures. FOLK ART is rooted in traditions that come from community and culture – expressing cultural identity by conveying shared community values and aesthetics. FOLK ART encompasses a range of utilitarian and decorative media, including cloth, wood, paper, clay, metal and more” (International Folk Art Market). You may have noticed that folk art is written in full capital letters, indicating a wish for those words to be seen rather than disregarded. Call & Response within their inclusion of so many different works creates its own definition of folk aesthetic and in turn is its own version of FOLK ART. One that incorporates originality, compassion, and information. 

Folk aesthetics represents people, culture, and art. Within the text Call & Response the folk people are people of color and the aesthetics shown are seen through their songs, stories, and the people. Call & Response uses the voices and pieces of Black people to illustrate their lives as everyday people. On the back of the cover page it has a illustration of the Tribes of the West African Coast in the era of the slave trade. What this does for the reader is that it sets the tone of the piece. Call & Response is an overall masterpiece of the pieces that Black individuals have contributed to society. This illustration of the West African Coast in the era of the slave trade highlights the various cultures that make up the continent of Africa. For instance, it highlights Ibo, Fons, Fulani, and Susu cultures. As a reader this left an imprint on how I view this text, before it was a textbook that I had to purchase for class but now it is a piece that represents the people that I call my ancestors. 

Within the use of songs readers are met with lyrics that represent the internal struggle that people of color were subject to. In the song We Raise de Wheat it states, “ Wee raise de wheat, dey gib us de corn; we bake de bread, dey gib us de cruss; we sif de meal, dey gib us de huss; we peal de meat, dey gib us de skin and dat’s de way dey takes us in” (241). This song illustrates the day to day life of many enslaved individuals, “we baker de bread, dey gib us dee cruss” in other words represents the labor aspect of these people. Many enslaved individuals cooked the meals their enslavers ate but as a return they were left with scraps. However, one other thing Call & Response does that highlights aesthetically is keeping the songs original, they use the words “dey” and “dee” that represents uniqueness in the way many people communicated.

The song used above is different from Gospel songs that are sung with guitar and piano. Call & Response acknowledges their dependence upon bodily rhythmic movement in illustrating Black worship, love, struggle, and faith. Take My Hand, Precious Lord by Thomas A. Dorsey embodies compassion. He sings “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night. Lead me on to the light, take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.” (804). Dorsey’s gospel song in many ways can be viewed as a story. He tells a story about being tired and weak but within the same lines talked about wanting to be led to the light and wanting to stand. This relates back to the song We Raise de Wheat where there is a feeling of weariness but also of possibilities. 

The use of short stories in this piece of art allows for folk aesthetics to highlight the realities of individuals that can be seen today. When reading Call & Response we can get sucked into the world of the past, we read about people, songs that are not recent, etc. But these short stories are key in understanding the lasting effects of culture. In the story Everyday Use by Alice Walker we are met with a family that showcases many forms of identity and art. One of the main characters Dee has reached a point in her life where she wants to claim her new identity, not the one that was given to her by her ancestors “enslavers”. However, it is the inclusion of the quilts that is connecting. The quilts to this family of three consist of connections to the past that showcase the progression of the future. Using Alice Walker’s work, Call & Response has demonstrated the concept of identity seen through quilts. These quilts are FOLK ART, they are rooted in tradition and culture while encompassing a combination of patterns and cloths. 

Call & Response can be looked at as a quilt. It has many layers of information, patterns that are seen through songs, short stories, rap lyrics, etc. And it embodies the concept of time, 20 years from now another college student might purchase this book and leave with their own interpretation that adds on to the significance of this quilt (Call & Response). 

Everyone has their personal purpose for the use of a tool; a hunter would use a knife to kill prey, a butcher would use the knife to filet the hunter’s catch, a cook would use the knife to prepare the butcher’s meat, a mother would use the knife to slice pieces of the cooks dish. The knife was necessary from the moment the prey was caught to the final bite off of the mothers plate, but intended use was not consistent. The mother wouldn’t see the knife as the weapon used to slain the prey’s life, nor would the hunter attack its prey with the knife used to dine.

The ambiguity of Call & Response governing aesthetic serves to represent its universality, similar to the butchers, hunters, cooks, and mothers knife. It serves as a cultural bible used to be liberally interpreted by whoever flips through the pages. To some it may be a dictionary to be referenced by some of the great works of the African American story, or the manifesto to a stronger revolution than the ones displayed among the excerpts. 

Within the preface we read how the content of the anthology responds to important socio-political issues, phrasing its ability to reach generations prior to the works provided and beyond. Personally, the preface explains clearly that the anthology serves as something greater than a reference to great African American work. It is evident that the content is used to stir the cultural flame that exists within the pain, hurt, and pride among the Spirituals and Folk cry. 

It is a weapon waiting for its proper wielder.

The anthology’s greatest purpose is used to enlighten the reader of their incredible purpose- to act on the themes expressed through the excerpts. It represents a much more prominent cultural nationalist aesthetic than what it may be given credit for. To say that the excerpts are primarily used to reference the soul and heart of ancestral resilience is an extreme disservice to its true potential. While still understanding that the knife is utilized differently by the operator, I have internalized that everyone’s purpose with knowledge is different. Nonetheless, you do not need a curriculum to understand how you affect math; the dates in which the anthology was formatted displays a fountain of information for the youth to understand the relationship between the culture and its relationship it has with embracing black liberation and progression. 

The table of contents represents more than a traditional sequential order of events, it stylistically creates a foundation of revolution amidst great struggle and its reflections in today’s time. From the Slave Works songs dated between 1619 to 1808, to the lyrics of Gil Scott Heron or the terrors seen in the Bronx from the rhymes by Grand Master Flash. But Rakim is not just another individual in the greater war for liberation, he gets is musical hymns from lives before his, so it isn’t him that’s lyrical- that rhythmic regiment that white America has profitalized, navigates from the soul and a touch grace reigns out everytime we hear a verse. This book serves to academically, spiritually, and emotionally activate a revolution within ourselves.

In the same manner where Sweet Honey In The Rock can emotionally move someone by detailing the words of their song “No More Auction Block”, or Dr. C.J Johsnson signing of the “One Morning Soon”, or thousands of AME churches all over America, that chant these rhythms in their unique variations, telling the story of betterment within struggle. Call & Response is a compilation of art that is used to promote a grander revolution by igniting subconscious flames among generations of thinkers, scholars, and anyone with the will to strive for justice.

We see commonalities within the subheadings of the table on contents when attempting to understand their specific significance. When reading the categories for each time period, we can see the story among them. The format subjectively reads: poetic context to the development of political action. From Southern Folk Call for Resistance (235) and Northern Literary Response… Rights For Women (245) to the entire subheading under “Win the War Blues” to “Cross Road Blues”. The format provided by the editors is a map; a journey already started by our ancestors, and it is up to our ferocious interpretation of this art to truly utilize our blessed tools. 

I understand that purpose, I understand the map being drawn up within the compilation of our great works. The knife can be used to shape more than just a piece of venison, this particular knife can carve a nation for generations to come. Its content can fuel the fire for a march stronger than the untold freedom marches of New York City in the 60s, more than the 5 percent nations everlasting brotherhood that I have been taught to love in my city, more than the heaven sent instrumentals that have been echoed to the ears of the blind for centuries. Call & Response represents an empowering road map in this everlasting arc of justice; a guide in which my brothers and sisters can utilize to celebrate the voices prior to our interpretation of such wisdom and power.

The editors may have meticulously used Call & Responses ambiguity for the very purpose I have detailed, or the compilation has served greater meaning than its intended erection. Nonetheless, its aesthetic is beyond cultural nationalism, it is the almanac that WILL be used for tomorrow’s glorious revolution!

In W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk, a chapter is dedicated to what DuBois refers to as “Sorrow Songs,” or what other Black scholars and figures have referred to as “spirituals” or “freedom songs.” Du Bois claims that there are four steps of development of slave songs: the first being “African music, the second Afro-American, while the third is a blending of Negro music with the music heard in the foster land.” DuBois hints towards a fourth step developing, in which white music has been “distinctively influenced by the slave songs or have incorporated whole phrases of Negro melody” (Hill, 751).

This excerpt from DuBois is featured in Call & Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, edited primarily by Patricia Liggins Hill, amongst an immense compilation of other African American works throughout history. Of all the recorded works collected in Call & Response, there seems to be a central focus on the ever evolving yet culturally rooted music of Black folk. Amidst the various literary works, Black music in the form of spirituals, slave songs, ballads, jazz compositions, and much more seem to dominate the governing aesthetic of what has shaped the African American experience.

The governing aesthetic of African American music is not limited to the songs provided in the anthology; it can even be found in other included African American literary works. For example, Frances Watkin Harper’s poem “Songs for the People” is included, in which she advocates for strength and importance of African American music in inspiring its people (Hill, 352-353). Countee Cullen’s “Colored Blues Singer” poetically expresses in his appreciation for Blues singers being able to turn sorrow into beautiful music (Hill, 914). Also included is a series of Michael S. Harpers’ poems, three of which directly address three highly influential Black musicians: John Coltrane, James Brown, and Bessie Smith (Hill, 1648-1652). Black music is everywhere throughout this anthology; it serves to credit Black populations and creators as well as protect against the increasing problem of DuBois’ fourth step of development in which white music has been not only influenced by Black music but has even attempted to take it over in some respects. DuBois merely hinted at this phenomenon in his time, but this influence on white music has increased to the point that Black musical creations have become whitewashed, sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable as Black creations. Thus, Call & Response’s governing aesthetic serves to protect and preserve against this.

 As a white young adult who considers himself well-versed in the music and musical trends of the past century (granted, mostly music created by white English-speakers, but most of which has been influenced by African American music), I immediately recognized that many of the songs featured in Call & Response were songs that I knew to be songs of African Americans. Songs featured in the anthology such as “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Wade in nuh Watuh Childun,” “Follow the Drinking Gou’d” were typical textbook-tunes that were taught to me and my peers as “spirituals” that I would always be able to immediately identify as African American slave songs. Other featured songs like “Respect” by Otis Redding (as interpreted by Aretha Franklin), “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” by James Brown, and “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye were songs I’d known as unmistakable products of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. That being said, these inclusions should not reduce the anthology down to a basic collection of well-known works.

Even amongst songs that are generally recognized as Black literary works, the anthology’s collection serves to help listeners/readers make connections between works from different eras. Thus, certain artistic decisions from African American literary work can be traced back by exploring the anthology’s music. From personal experience, I had been long familiar with Richie Haven’s “Freedom” without knowing that the “Motherless Child” verses were based upon lyrical poetry spirituals from enslaved Africans until upon scanning the anthology (Hill, 51). As a fan of the song “The Weight” by The Band, I have appreciated Aretha Franklin’s cover for some time now; however, I had previously wondered why she changed the original lyrics “go down, Miss Moses,” to simply, “go down Moses.” This was clarified for me upon finding “Go Down, Moses” in the anthology, an old slave spiritual (Hill, 42). Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” along with an immense number of other African American songs reference the Jordan river. Upon review of the lyrics to “Hail Mary” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” “Deep River,” all 19^th century African American spirituals, the artistic decision to use the Jordan river as a symbol in African American music is clear: it is a reference to birth, salvation, and rebirth amongst African Americans which served as a glimpse of hope (Hill, 237, 560). Lastly, I always understand the closing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech as an empowering statement he developed himself: “free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I am free at last.” I credited the audience’s reaction to this statement as an in-the-moment agreement with his assertion. Until I reviewed Call and Response, I had no ideathat both the audience’s reaction and MLK Jr.’s choice of words were due to a referential understanding of the post-emancipation spiritual “Free at Las’” (Hill, 558). Call & Response helps solidify connections between past and recent Black literary traditions, which in itself emulates the call and response technique typical of Black music from which the title gets its name.

While the anthology does a great job of cataloging and crediting the work of African Americans, what must not be ignored by audiences is that many of the songs included in the anthology have been adapted by white voices, just as DuBois hinted to. The white adaptation of Black music was inevitable; without searching for the origin, listeners are often under the impression that these songs are works of the white interpreters. Due to the predominantly white society that we live in, many listeners of these white artists may be unaware of the Black origins in so much of their favorite music.

There are countless songs, only which a fraction of is mentioned in Call & Response, that I was exposed to by white artists and likely would not have known were Black tunes if it weren’t for my personal research. “Crossroad Blues” by Robert Johnson is a perfect example: I was exposed to the song initially by Eric Clapton (a white blues guitarist from England who is no stranger to receiving criticism for stealing the work of Black artists) just as many other white audiences were and still are today. Another tune I recognized from the anthology was “Go Tell It on de Mountain,” which was introduced to me and many white audiences by Peter, Paul, & Mary’s rendition. Peter, Paul, & Mary’s cover is significant because they have rewritten the traditional lyrics to incorporate the lyrical adaptations of “Go Down Moses” into the verses and the chorus (Hill, 561). I was aware that “Go Tell It on The Mountain” was a historically Black song, but I had always figured that Peter, Paul, & Mary had created the altered lyrics themselves considering how active they were in the Civil Rights Movement. Upon perusing the anthology, I found the lyrics to “Go Down Moses” to be eerily similar to the Peter, Paul, & Mary version and concluded that the latter had heavily based their lyrics upon the traditional verses of Black folk (Hill, 42-44).   

I was taken aback by the prevalence of other familiar tunes that I had no idea were created by Black voices. “Back Door Man” and “Big Boss Man” initially caught my attention. I was very familiar with the cover of the former by The Doors and the cover of the latter by the Grateful Dead. My personal research had failed to prove that they were created by Black artists until now. Upon this realization, the themes of the songs made sense. The lyrics to “Back Door Man” are clearly an allusion to a white-female desire for Black men but the simultaneous necessity for Black men to pursue them in secret (Hill, 1386-1387). The lyrics to “Big Boss Man” can be applied on a more universal level, but when centered around the Black experience there is an additional layer of intersectionality that affects how the narrator is treated by their boss. “We Shall Overcome” and “We Shall Not Be Moved” were two of the biggest surprises. I’d heard them both performed many times by Pete Seeger and his other white contemporaries involved in the Civil Rights movement, thus I always figured they were covering his songs. It was to my shock to find out that these were not songs written in solidarity, but instead songs that were written in Black struggle and the latter adapted to the Civil Rights movement with an alteration of “I” to “We” in the title and the lyrics (Hill, 1093, 1393).

My surprise continued when I took a deeper look into three other songs that were created by Black voices but are generally recognized as race-less songs today by many. “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho” is often recognized as an African American spiritual, but has somewhat been obscured from its hidden emphasis on race as it has become popular within white society (I also speak from personal experience, as I went to a 95% white high school and heard this performed countless times at chorus concerts with no mention of its Black origins). The lyrics seem to compare the biblical story of the Battle of Jericho with the social struggle against slavery in which, eventually the “walls come tumbling down” (Hill 47). “When the Saints Go Marching In” has also been obscured from its Black origins as many marching bands and white Christian gospels have given their takes on the song. However, the lyrics in the context of this anthology show one of the many examples of Black faith in a judgment day and recognizing that then, in salvation, they will be saved, especially during a time when many African American felt unwelcome on earth in America (Hill. 561). Lastly, “This Little Light of Mine” is a spiritual that has been enjoyed by many as a lullaby and even covered famously by Bruce Springsteen. However, Call & Response provides us with a richer history: it was adapted for the Civil Rights movement and included clear references to the ostracization and discrimination that Black people felt in the country (specifically in places like “Birmingham” and “Mississippi”) pitted against the glimpse of hope, or “light of freedom,” that they felt would help them persevere. Without the anthology’s categorization of this as a “Gospel Adapted for the Liberation Movement,” I wouldn’t have known the transformative history of this song, as I’m sure many other don’t (Hill, 1392).

The fact that so many of these familiar and even some popular tunes were rendered unrecognizable as African American songs signals the importance of music in an African American anthology. Music is one of the easier aspects of culture to obscure from its origins due to its universality, especially when incorporated into a society where the origin culture does not hold the power. As DuBois asks in The Souls of Black Folk, “would America have been America without her Negro people?” (Hill 754). In regard to music, I believe no, but it would be easy for those that don’t know the rich and influential history of Black music in this country to believe yes. This is where the importance of an inclusive anthology with an overarching aesthetic comes in. One cannot even skim through the table of contents of Call & Response without noticing the sheer amount of music and musical references that make up this anthology, much of which is likely unbeknownst to readers (especially those of newer generations) as African American creations. This governing aesthetic not only ties together the African American experience, but it also ties together many of the loose ends, many of the misconceptions, that individuals may hold. This is where Call & Response is unique: databases from the internet will satisfy seekers with quick answers that are stagnated by the illusion of understanding; this anthology, however, will force the average listener and reader to question their understanding of American music and to further ponder what hasn’t been challenged yet.

  While reading through the textbook Call and Response The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, I noticed the ample collection of different forms of art. At first I thought it was just there for fun, but then after the class discussing W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk I went back to my notes and started digging more. The editors chose to emphasize the different sections and topics within the anthology by both juxtaposing the array of media used, while also tying them together with their importance to the culture itself. Therefore, it is imperative for the reader to take in not only the text itself, but also the images, musical lines, poetry, etc. that the editors chose to add in throughout the anthology in order to best understand the culture from an outsider’s point of view.

At the beginning of each section there is a small paragraph describing the period of time as well as the topic that will be covered. Around that text however, is the presence of the art. For example, in the first section of the text titled ‘Go Down, Moses, Way Down in Egypt’s Land’ the editors include both a portrait by Aaron Douglass from James Weldon Johnson’s ‘God’s Trombones’, as well as a line of musical notes titled Listen Lord, My Prayer. (pp. 1) I believe that the editors included this art as a way to emphasize the importance of oral and visual artistic traditions in African American culture. African American culture values these traditions because of the oppression of education during slavery and the lack of black folks being given the knowledge to be able to write or read. This oral tradition allows them to pass on the lessons and knowledge they have gained from their ancestors as well as give hidden advice on how to escape slavery. As Angela Khristin Brown says, “African-American oral culture is rich in poetry, including spirituals, gospel music, blues, and rap. This oral poetry also appears in the African-American tradition of Christian sermons, which make use of deliberate repetition, cadence, and alliteration. African-American literature—especially written poetry, but also prose—has a strong tradition of incorporating all of these forms of oral poetry.” (pp. 2, Brown)

Throughout this first section of Call and Response (which is set from 1619-1808 and discusses the conditions of slavery and oppression) the editors sprinkle in lines of music from this time period about these conditions. Examples of this include ‘What Ship is This That’s Landed on the Shore?’ (pp.4), ‘Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?’ (pp. 10), and ‘Oh! de Song of Salvation Is a Mighty Sweet Song’ (pp.19). I believe the editors chose these specific songs due to their lyricism in relation to the topic. In ‘What Ship is This That’s Landed on the Shore?’ The black gospel song is about the transplantation of the African peoples “Although the overwhelming majority of colonial Africans were reduced to this state of perpetual slavery, Africans in the North American British colonies made up only a portion of a larger black population that has been transported as slaves on the Middle Passage to destinations throughout the New World.” (pp.4-5) This song is a testament to the African peoples resilience in such a difficult time in history where they were separated across the globe, but were still brought together in their culture through music. 

The song ‘Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?’ shows the importance of ancestors and black history as a part of African American culture. In order to move on and continue through life in a meaningful way, you must always look back at your ancestors, their lives, and the struggles they went through to have you be where you are. This is complimented very well with the recursive nature of the songs themselves, as well as the editors choice to consistently go back to the music and art of the time throughout the anthology. “As Olaudah Equiano explains in The Interesting Narrative in Africa the spoken word, music, and dance were at the center of a communal and profoundly religious way of life. Most Africans believed that spirits lived in all things- in plants, in trees, in animals, and even in stones, as well as in people. All things on earth were connected by a life force that tied people to people and people to things. Most Africans also practiced ancestral worship. They believed that a person’s soul survived after death and that they could reach the souls of their long-dead ancestors.” (pp. 10) In accordance with this way of ancestral worship, you would look back on and ask for guidance from your ancestors and their lives that led to your birth. The repetition of the music itself, as well as the music appearances throughout the anthology really pushes the importance of this belief.

Lastly, the song ‘Oh! de Song of Salvation Is a Mighty Sweet Song’ is a celebratory song speaking of both the song itself being powerful to black folks, as well as the meaning behind the song. Singing of freedom and salvation from slavery. The inclusion of this music reminds me of both the video we watched with Bernice Johnson Reagon, as well as W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk. The inclusion of this music was intentional and impacts the way a reader interprets the text around it. With the intentional placement of the music, I am reminded of the impact Beth mentioned at the one version of The Souls of Black Folk being published without the musical lines, thus accidentally changing the meaning of the text’s interpretations.As with the video we watched in class, Bernice Johnson Reagon spoke of music being just a way to get to singing, and that singing was the way to bring people together in a meaningful way. “I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song.” Music has a way of both staying the same and changing with the times. The notes and music itself stays exactly the same but the meaning behind it shifts with the culture itself. Much like Bernice Johnson Reagon spoke of devotional songs such as “This Little Light Of Mine” shifting and being used as “Freedom Songs” during the Civil Rights Movement. With each piece of knowledge gained from both the images and musical lines, the reader is better equipped to interpret the text itself in a deeper way. Art is not made in a vacuum, it is impacted by the history and culture around it.

    The anthology of “Call & Response,” written by various authors, is a massive 1,000 page collection of various essays and stories, placed into the format of just what the title states: a call and a response. Although contributed to by dozens of different authors, the anthology expresses some clear cut ideas on cultural “aesthetics” through the content contained within, as well as the structure of the anthology itself. 

    One of the biggest ideas of culture this anthology reinforces is the idea of this casual, or personal culture. The idea that culture is found in simple places, and isn’t exclusively something high or artful. The simplest way this was shown to me was in the first call of the book: the call for deliverance. This section was entirely made up of various oral works, such as the idea of the shout (31). The format of the shout was that the “leader” would sing a single stanza twice (the walk), before the chorus would sing the shout. This and other examples authors brought up provided a clear and simple image of what people wanted; what “the call really meant.” I think this was why this anthology was arranged this way; immediately show the reader what is meant by the idea of the call, and in a sense “show off” one of the most important aesthetics in the anthology. By placing this much simpler form of culture, one thats much more personal to a group and already familiar to a reader, it gave me a good entrance point to the book. It also provided some necessary cultural background for me. While the readings as a whole helped, the section descriptions of slavery and oppression provided at the start of the call provided some insight for the basis of what was to come in later sections. Particularly, the line “the weak must assert themselves against the strong…” on page 18 put the whole section into frame for me. The idea that the culture from Africa was not dead, the idea that “power” could be reobtained, and that enslaved persons knew this gave everything I read in this section proper meaning.

    The story of “Everyday Use” that we explored in class also reinforced some of these ideas of a “folk” aesthetic; that culture comes from the everyday person. Right off the bat, we know our narrator isn’t some highly educated “high society” type of person. She admits to not having an education, her house is described as being smaller, and the story is riddled with small clues that tell you the kind of background this person comes from (1721). However, she and her family still exemplify a facet of culture in a way; the passing down of ideas. In particular, a quilt is passed down from the narrator’s mother, however, it still shows the concepts of culture. It was also a link we made in class, however, I wanted to point out the concept of repetition also being important to culture as a whole. As discussed earlier and in the section also mentioned earlier, much of African folklore could be seen in the culture of enslaved persons, and this is sort of a repetition as well. I would argue this concept also ties in with the concept of cultural nationalism. As defined by Wilson Center Digital Lab, cultural nationalism is the concept of using culture to cement a place in society. This is in a way breaking up that repetition, but also using it to one’s advantage as well. As discussed in classed, when things repeat in culture, it morphs slightly, or is seen in a different context due to the previous cycles. In Everyday Use, the quilt being passed down will have a different meaning for each of its owners, just as culture will have a different meaning in each time period for the people who are a part of it.

    The format of the book was also something I wanted to discuss. I think it’s a highly effective way to organize the writing. At a surface level, it separates the anthology into “eras” of sorts, which makes it easy to approach and for the reader to relate to their knowledge of existing history. But again, I relate it back to this idea of repetition, and I think the organizers (possibly unintentionally, although I won’t doubt their competence) structured it in a way so that we could see this sort of cycle. The book starts out with a call, and that call has a response. At first, the call is the oral traditions and their     meanings, and the response to that becomes the call for independence. This call and response loop of a problem arising, and the response being the sort of “acting” on that call, that problem. The fact that there is always this new call, and always the need for a response, is a good way of exemplifying the struggles this book details. 

    All in all, I think Call & Response presents a very humble sort of idea of culture, and uses it to support the ideas and concepts of cultural nationalism. The concept of repetition was also very important to the anthology, and helped exemplified the necessity for these responses.

(Source: https://digilab.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/cultural-nationalism)

What does it mean to call and respond? I believe that answering this question will provide insight into the governing aesthetic of The Riverside Anthology of African American Literary Tradition: Call and Response. The preface to the anthology provides some context and reasoning behind the structure and title. It describes the anthology as creating African American “antiphonal patterns” which put minds in conversation with one another. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, antiphonal refers to a piece being sung or played by two groups in turn. This may resemble a cadence of back and forth where the second entity waits for the first to finish before beginning their idea. It could also present gumbo ya ya which is defined in Elsa Barkley Brown’s “African American Women’s Quilting” article as a practice where everybody talks at once (925). It could even look like a plethora of choices in presentation and form. This style could be similar to what we examined in Suzan-Lori Parks’ piece “Possession” in which speakers can experiment with different ways of presenting the format of the piece. Ultimately though, the idea of antiphony represents voices in conversation with one another. It presents a multifaceted aesthetic that encourages connections between a variety of ideas and moments. 

The structure of the anthology certainly contributes to understanding its aesthetic. Antiphony produces what the Preface describes as, “Black America’s major cultural art forms that fosters and reinforces a dynamic, artistic, and cultural relationship between the individual and the group” (xxxiii). We see this relationship demonstrated in the section titles provided in the table of contents. In Section II, the “Southern Folk Call for Resistance” is connected to “Northern Literary Response: Rights for Blacks, Rights for Women.” While the “Response” portion incorporates many individual voices such as David Walker, Sojourner Truth, and Maria W. Stewart, all of the voices are part of a group that is in conversation with the ‘Call for Resistance’. In this way, the pieces in each “call” and corresponding “response” relate to one another and capture the idea of dialogue between individual thinkers and group ideals.  

Another way to explain this concept of relationships is depicted in the documentary Bernice Johnson Reagon: The Songs are Free. In this film, Reagan invokes the same principles of individuals within group relationships while describing the importance of “I songs.” Reagan states, “in order to express community, you have to go to the first person plural. And in the black community, when you want the communal expression, everybody says “I.” So if there are five of us here and all of us say “I,” then you know that there’s a group.” As Reagan asserts, the “I song” holds individuals accountable for the promises that they make to a group. I think that recognizing this connection between individual and group is important to understanding the general aesthetic of Call and Response. Not every person presented in the anthology is a scholar or acclaimed academic, but every voice is valued for its own contribution. The variety acts like a hand-stitched quilt where individually every piece may be beautiful but together they form a work of art that makes a powerful statement. 

The quilt analogy is multifaceted because stitching all of the pieces together requires intentionality and deliberate attention to detail. The way conversations are set up is thoughtful and meant to generate a deeper level of thought. Readers are encouraged to draw connections across sections and return to earlier ideas. Elsa Barkley Brown describes this process in  “African American Women’s Quilting” when she asserts “’In jazz, for example, each musician has to listen to what the other is doing and know how to respond while each is, at the same time, intent upon her/his own improvisation” (925). The process of “call and response” requires independent thinking, active listening, and a mix of dissidence and harmony to be truly moving. It also encourages the act of recursion which Dr. McCoy has described it as “moving forward while looping back at the same time.” This recursive process builds on the act of making connections and facilitates the understanding of some more complex conversations. 

Examining the idea of  “call and response” has led me to form the opinion that the anthology privileges the cultural production of ordinary everyday people. In addition to the inclusivity of the antiphonal style, the music element of the book seemed to suggest that the editors wanted the ideas to be accessible to everyone. In the documentary Bernice Johnson Reagon: The Songs are Free, Reagon describes the way that music can act as a force to deeply move people. She states “Songs are a way to get to singing. The singing is what you’re aiming for and the singing is running this sound through your body. You cannot sing a song and not change your condition.” This quote stood out to me because I believe it is true. In my own experiences, being in an environment where everyone is singing together in one place has changed my mood and adjust the way that I am feeling. Therefore, the incorporation of music throughout the anthology might be meant to provide a similar effect. The songs get to emotions that are accessible to all readers but especially readers who have grown up singing them. In this way, the ideas and messages can be understood and interpreted by everyday, ordinary people. 

Ultimately, the anthology has a multifaceted aesthetic that uses antiphony and a “call and response” structure to make the conversations of many different voices accessible to a variety of readers. 

Now more than ever, history is crucial in learning and creating in the world we live in today. So much of American history revolves around the over representation of white people and dehumanization of minorities. Laws are created and communities unite, but after so many efforts into creating a truly equal world, one comes to accept the reality. History, America’s history specifically, has made it near to impossible to see each other as equals. But is that really what should be strived for anymore? Would it be enough to antone or reparate the generations of pain caused? A good definition for this is found in Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity’s book, “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century,” reparations are defined as “acknowledgement, redress, and closure for a grievous injustice”. They state that we live in an America “that is unable to acknowledge and confront persistent racial inequality” leading to the pattern of racial injustices with African Americans we still see today. I think about this definition often when reading our texts.

Call and Response, The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literary Tradition, edited by Patricia Liggins Hill, preaches and petitions for simply an understanding. While reading through Call and Response, I found the theme of unity and memory shining through the most. In Elsa Barkley Brown’s African-American Women’s Quilting states “I do not mean that white or male students can learn to feel what it is like to be a Black woman…I believe that all people can learn to center in another experience, validate it, and judge it by its own standards without need of comparison..”. It’s not necessarily equality, but empathy. Brown goes on to say “African-American women’s quilting… provides us with the framework..” to achieve it when color strips are different than the colors in the blocks or designs representing unpredictability and movement, change. I believe that we live in an American deceptive to change. We welcome it but at the same time we are conditioned and untrusting of what hasn’t conformed to the “norm”.

This is what I mean when I talk about over representation of white people in history, especially white men. You see it in propaganda from the early 1900s and in the higher power and authority during that time. When the United States was founded, it arose the contemporary concept of “race,” tied to the evolution of the terms “white” and “slave.” In the 1500s, Europeans established the terms “race,” “white,” and “slave,” and they brought these ideas and perspectives to North America. The words, on the other hand, do not carry the same connotations as they have now. Instead, the demands of a thriving American society would change the meaning of those words into new conceptions. 

In Suzan-Lori Parks’ An Equation for Black People she says “The bulk of relationships Black people are engaged in onstage is the relationship between the Black and White other”. She goes on to say that it is “high drama” but she also wonders “if a drama involving a Black people can exist without the White presence.”. This got me thinking as well, it simply takes one to unfairly disregard the other. She quotes from Toni Morrison’s Black Matters, “the presence of the White often signifies the presence of the Black…reduces Blackness to merely a state of non-Whiteness.”. In this equation the “Blackness” is people whose lives have consisted of “reactions and responses to the White ruling class.”  Parks emphasizes history as a crucial element in understanding African-American literature and art including daily confrontation of the White ruling class. 

I believe that there is a fine line between History and memory. Both equally coincide with each other to create stories to learn from, not to be repeated. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, she repeats a phrase at the end of the book, “this is not a story to be passed on” and at the beginning “deliberately buried but not forgotten”.  These phases from Beloved, speak volumes to the story’s message as a whole “this is not a story to pass on” and unclaimed recollections of servitude, painful experiences of exploitation and abuse that the protagonists deliberately strive to bury and forget but can’t. This also speaks to the more ignorance rather than “memory” of slavery and racism in America. Beloved tells its story through memory as it switches back and forth between past and present giving history its purpose. To compare and reflect, not to repeat. Despite their efforts to suppress their memories of slavery, the characters are haunted and tortured by them. Memory is constant, concrete, and inevitable in this work, and history stems from that.

 In W.E.B Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, He presents a question that, in my opinion, has a collective element. “Why did God make me an outcast and stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all..”. He goes on to say “…walls strait and stubborn to the whitest..” commenting on white ruling and  “..but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of the night..” commenting on the struggles of conforming to what white people would see as normal. He calls it “double-consciousness”- a sense of looking at yourself through the eyes of others and measuring your highs/lows to others successes/failures. There is no standard or expectation without this. Du Bois continues to state that he would not “Africanize” America because there is so much we have to learn from one another and therefore African American “blood has a message for the world”. History is memory, moments lived and remembered. 

All around I believe the undergird principles that guide this collection are the guiding principles that undergird Call and Response presentation African American tradition are as follows: unity, pride, and history as memory. Pride in that there is a refusal to conform to the white-washing American lifestyle. As if to erase the generational suffering of African Americans, with the white American lifestyle since many are under the assumption that African Americans, and minorities in general, would be better off. Would they? Who knows? But one thing is for sure that we cannot disregard a culture because it is simply different. Back then, and even today, African Americans had no choice but to unite and stick together as a community collectively suffering under the ruling of White people. The permanent psychological and emotional trauma that African Americans face is a harm that they bear collectively. Sharing their memory and pain creates a larger picture.

While voraciously glancing through the many pages that make up the Call and Response anthology, I was pleasantly surprised to see a wide range of literacy organized throughout. I began thinking about the collaborative writing style and differing aesthetics showcased throughout the book. Aesthetics, by definition, are methods used to promote or educate readers about important artistic expression in society, and that is exactly what I think the authors and editors for this anthology were aiming for. Everyone knows that literature is one of many art forms and can be represented through poetry, short stories, song lyrics, etc. and all of these and more are included in this collection. The main aesthetic of Call and Response as a whole anthology seems to be focused on the differences between the individual authors in terms of aesthetic. This begs the question, is the main aesthetic of the anthology truly one aesthetic?

            The title of this book, Call and Response: The Riverside Anthology of the African American Literacy Tradition, suggests that these authors are members of a common cultural community that are working together to educate their peers, similar and dissimilar to themselves, on the past, present, and foreseeable future of the culture in question: African American culture. One of our first reading assignments for this course was the short story, “Everyday Use.” The problems that are presented in this story really work through a common struggle people have with shifting cultural values. Dee, Mama, and Maggie are all struggling with opposing thoughts on how blankets made by an ancestor should be used to keep their heritage alive. Dee has gone off to college and has learned so much about Black culture that she feels that she is right when she says the blankets should be hung on the wall of a common space for all guests to admire. Mama and Maggie do not have any level of higher education and are working physically to support themselves instead, and they strongly believe that the blankets will be honored through use in their home for typical blanket purposes (keeping warm, etc.). Neither is necessarily wrong or right; it’s all about perspective. Thinking about present day, a lot of people are struggling to figure out how to best represent their ancestors in today world. Some have decided on pushing back on what history thinks of their culture and have started fresh with their own newfound knowledge and understanding of their culture, others are still living like their ancestors lived before them trying not to change a thing. Then, there are others still that have decided on combining old and new aspects of their culture’s values and making them feasible to their daily lives. Again, none of these options is the “right” one. Everyone comes into life with their own ability to see, think, and feel different aspects of the world around them. This short story really shows different perspectives in the anthology and begins proving that the overall aesthetic of it is a unique mixture of many perspectives.

            Besides short stories, Call and Response also includes poems, songs, sermons, and author/editor biographies before their designated section of the anthology. “A Sermon,” found on page 194, is a sermon that was preached on June 24, 1789, in Boston and it reads: “Roman xii. 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another.” This sermon is of few words but has a big impact on the general population at this time, especially in the Black community. At this point in history, slavery was still a huge part of everyday lives, and this sermon speaks clearly to the members of all communities alike to open up their hearts and love one another under the words of God. Regarding perspective, this sermon can be looked at from different perspectives when using a historical lens. There is truly perspective in everything. Having this sermon included in Call and Response allowed authors and editors to provide multiple literacy outlets for African American voices to be heard.

            Music is an aspect of African American culture that serves as an outlet for feelings, thoughts, and beliefs, and one of the many songs included in Call and Response is “Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Negro National Anthem” (796). One section of this song resonated with me throughout my journey of flipping through the anthology reads “We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, / We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, / Out from the gloomy past, / Till now we stand at last / Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast” (796). This song as a whole speaks volumes to what life was like back in 1900 when James Weldon Johnson first wrote and performed the song. This song was so popular during this time in history that the NAACP adopted it on February 12, 1900. It was bittersweet for me to see this song in the anthology because I have knowledge of the time period and the struggles that the Black community had to face due to the ignorance of the white majority, and I am glad that society is actively working on making a change in how people of different cultures and backgrounds are treated in modern society, but it hurts me to think that we were ever in a place where treating people less than human was acceptable. This piece of literature, even though it is presented in song format, helps readers of the anthology gain knowledge and understanding of important historical events that help develop different perspectives on African American cultural values.

            The book doesn’t just enlighten its readers about only the good or bad, hardships or triumphs, past or present. It is an envelope that allows for all views, old and new, to be explored. This compilation of literature was created for readers to think, feel, and beginning to better understand what it is like to be a member of a culture that is made from so many different pieces, and our goal is to try to fit the pieces together to create an image of the past, present, and future of African American culture in literacy and beyond.

Looking deep into the content we’ve learned and discussed thus far within this course, our reading and learning of the Call and Response anthology has educated me in a lot of different facets outside of my current knowledge behind African American culture  a handful of my peers were also intrigued by the influence of music impacting African American culture, but I felt that the video presentation of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon was a perfect visual representation of the magnitude music has upon one culture.  Through the readings we’ve been analyzing and learning from, the visual presentation told us a lot about how impactful music can really be, whether it be the composition in which it was written, the rhythm, the contagious energy of uniting those beside you, and allowing you to be heard in an area of silence and isolation.  This is displayed through history itself in protests, church, and other events that unites a culture and bands together which is a beautiful sight and a solid representation of it’s impact, especially when referring to its transition into literature.

When we refer to the Title ”Call and Response”, one could acknowledge the nod to the world of music, as call and response in music terms refers to a solo demonstration of a certain phrase, while the response is the ensemble following up with that next phrase.  Similar to that representation, call and response is enabling unity, and telling a story about heritage and culture to the audience, giving the audience the response.  I found that Call and Response and the texts we’ve read thus far truly garner an aesthetic approach versus belletristic.  The content being explained and taught relies heavily on the anthology and the response of the reader.  With a greater focus on the presentation of the culture and experience more than the literature aspect of all of it.

For a reference, if we look at Barkley Brown’s African American Women’s Quilting, we get visual, and foreign linguistic demonstration on how quilting is a good portion of African American culture and its definition to its respected heritage.  We can identify this in the text where it states, “Wahlman and Scully argue that African-American quilters prefer the sporadic use of the same material in several squares when this material could have been used uniformly because they prefer

variation to regularity” (Brown, 923).  The key word that speaks for itself is variation over regularity, that each color, knit, and patch has its own individual identity and makes its unique to any other culture existing.  It’s supported later in the text where it describes the off-beat patterning that reflects the multiple rhythms and patterns within a controlled design.  I found this information  fascinating as rhythm seems to be a prominent factor in this culture’s congruence.  We can see in the visuals how scattered the creativity is within each square in the quilt, with different shapes almost defining each person’s story behind its creation.

This outside text supports the idea of identity being a big factor into the governing aesthetic in the Call and Responses anthology.  Each distinct individual detail reflects the identity of African American culture and what it means to be a part of it, and spreading awareness and unity along with it.  When reading through Call and Responses early subtopics, oral traditions were a dominant aspect of African American cultures and explained above, whether it be voiced through dance, song and basic oral discourse.  This can be explained in Call in response where it explains, “There, and in otherwise secret and forbidden gatherings, they could exchange stories about African life, create new lore about their American experience, and express these reflections in dance and song.  Usually, they sang two types of songs—religious and secular—although one kind of music was not necessarily exclusive of the other” (11).  We learned about the anguish and brutal torture slavery brought to innocent African American lives; with that being said, this type of musical discourse was so pivotal to this culture and helped each person involved tell their story and unify each other together, which is powerful in it of itself.  

Chiming into the spiritual significance that influenced and built on African American culture, biblical narratives shed light on instances of hardship that are shared and amongst many.  In an excerpt from Banna Kanutes Sunjata, we get an instance of a similar story between Sunjata and a heroic biblical figure like Moses.  While this excerpt talks about the conflicts experienced by Sunjata, this is immediately followed up by Go Down, Moses which is displayed to tell a similar story with a biblical approach, to empathize the multiple instances of religion being parallel with the situations and lives of those going through pain, struggle, and injustice.  From my perspective, these excerpts were very emotional, yet hard for me to understand and comprehend by its language and presentation.  Ultimately this is something I’ve never particularly read before.  I don’t find myself as invested with religion currently, but that doesn’t mean understanding one’s religion or beliefs is not possible.  However, I strongly value the way of telling a story and the influence religion can bring to storytelling and the culture itself, which I love.

The Call and Response approach to our studies of African American Culture is very insightful, as there are multiple instances of music and rhythm that are huge compositions to the body of African American culture.  I found that rhythm itself is not just tempo, harmonies and an ensemble but rather the flow and spreading of unity identity to a culture enriched in emotional and vivid stories and experiences that are individually special that gain more significance when told and passed to those engrossing in learning or being apart of the history of the culture itself.  There is and still a lot that I honestly don’t quite understand but that’s ok.  Being open minded and hearing and reading the stories and history, is what is expanding and growing my knowledge about the culture itself.  I found the spiritual, musical, oral, and artistic foundations of this culture so distinct that separates its importance from any culture I’ve learned about so far.  The rhythms we’ve heard and learned is only destined to change over time and the more I engross myself in the history of the culture, the more I will find the rhythm to change and shine.

In the first section of Call and Response that we had to read as a class (pages 1-68), it was said that this would be the first “call” in the book. I am here to argue that there are actually two calls and one response within these pages. The first call happens between pages 1-18. This first “call” was meant to be a call of information. It was meant to inform people about where African culture is found in Euro-America and how it got there. Here, the authors talk about the origins of the oral African tradition. This includes sections on “African proverbs,  Folk Cries, Work Songs, Spirituals, and Folktales” (Hill 1-18). The main idea that the authors discuss in this section is how there are “African proverbs and slave proverbs” (Hill 11-12). These proverbs are two very different things as African proverbs grew their roots only though African culture and slave proverbs grew their roots in Euro-American culture. Although, slave proverbs have been proven to have African origins as well as Euro-American origins. In fact, J. Mason Brewer did a comparative study that showed that “black people brought at least 122 proverbs directly from Africa” (Brewer 11-12). What this means is that African Americans combined African tradition with the hardships that they had to face from enslavement in the Americas to create their own culture in “the New World” (Hill 12). This section goes on to explain how these proverbs have been found in work songs, spirituals, and folktales told by African Americans. It is within these songs that African culture can be found. Predominantly in the way that the words to these songs are spoken, and the emotion that begs for the need of freedom within those words that are said. Therefore the first call was about information on African oral tradition and was meant to set up the first response of the book.

The first response in this section occurs between pages 19-27. Here, we find some answers about African literacy and how writers incorporated ideas from oral tradition in their writing. Specifically, this is a response to the call of freedom that was found in all of the African American work songs and spirituals found on pages 1-18. In this response, we can find examples of African American scholars who “articulated the theme of freedom in a variety of ways” (Hill 19). These scholars took the traditional African oral stories and wrote them in a way for people to have an understanding of African culture as well as the enslavement way of life. The freedom aspect found in many of these scholars’ writings was found in the way they wrote about enslavement. These writers not only wrote about the need for freedom from slavery, they also wrote about the need for freedom from Euro-American views on life. This response to the first call is monumental in the understanding of how African tradition has not faded away due to Euro-American ideologies. It is important to note that even African American writers who were “free”, as well as enslaved writers during their time all, agreed that African culture needed to be brought to life in their writing. Whether it be personal accounts that they had to embark on or stories that they had heard from fellow African Americans, the response stayed the same. The need to keep African culture alive through their writing was of utmost importance to them.

            These writers influenced the last call in this section. This call is a more detailed version of the original call that occurred on pages 1-18. This call takes place from pages 28-68. This section goes into further detail about the proverbs in the songs, what they mean and how they first came about. It is in this section that you can find song examples from every category mentioned earlier. These songs get broken down to show what type of spiritual or folk cry it is and how they differ from one another. In this section, the “call” is meant to be a call of understanding. To help people understand the different types of songs that were sung by African Americans as well as the meanings behind those songs. This is done so that people who aren’t familiar with this genre of music are able to educate themselves on what these songs are and the meaning behind them. This last call starts off by comparing slave proverbs to African proverbs and how although they look significantly different, the meaning doesn’t change. For example, the slave proverb “distant stovewood is good stovewood” and the African proverb “distant firewood is good firewood” have the same meaning that “things look better from a distance” (Hill 29). This is just one example to show the differences between the two proverbs. This section goes on to show the songs and how there are calls and responses within the songs that African Americans sang as work songs, spirituals, and cries. The calls in the songs are the leader of the song singing the first verse and then the response is the chorus singing in an echo back. So, the idea of call and response being found in African American tradition is not so uncommon as seen in their singing. For example, on page 33 of Call and Response, the work song “An Old Boat Song” is sung like this:

“(Lead Singer) We are going down to Georgia boys, (Chorus) Aye, Aye. (Lead Singer) To see the pretty girls, boys. (Chorus) Yoe, Yoe.”

This song shows how African American songs and phrasing often act as a call and response to the experiences they have had. Going on in this section of the final call, more examples are found of how work songs, spirituals, and cries have this type of leader and chorus methodology about them. The examples found in the final call for this section create an understanding of how African oral tradition has become a part of songs and folktales. It is through songs and folktales that we are able to understand and respect a culture that has survived many hardships throughout the decades.