Please join us for the first Ethnoise! of the winter quarter.  Alisha Lola Jones (U Chicago) will present “‘This Prayer Is UnSpoken’: Breaking Silence and Negotiating Queerness in Black Gospel Performance.”

This paper examines performances and discourses of two gospel artists,
Ton3x and Jungle Cat, who embody longstanding tensions and
contradictions concerning queerness and black Christian identity.
Through a comparative description and analysis, I argue that these men
attempt to break the silence around issues of sexuality that persists
among gospel practitioners. Silence breaking is, in many ways, a
highly creative act through which these gospel artists launch
critiques and renegotiate their identities through social media.
Expressing a progressive black Pentecostal masculinity through musical
gesture and sound, they intentionally push boundaries of gender
identity while carving out new social and spiritual “homes” through
bodily performance. In so doing, they also give voice to “unspoken”
forms of gospel praise.

We will convene at 4:30 on Thursday, Jan 5th in Goodspeed 205.

Persons who believe they may need assistance to participate in this event, please call Will Faber in advance at 773.987.5299.