This panel investigates the paradoxes of freedom in an era of repeatedly undermined human rights. Papers in this panel challenge the cooption of freedom’s language by oppressive groups, resists systemic oppression, and/or affirms enduring and transformative visions of freedom. The first paper examines the way Nana Kwame Adeji-Brenyah's novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, asks us to redefine our concepts of freedom and annihilation. The second paper explores how the Black prophetic tradition manifests in the current Black Lives Matter era through a consideration of Angela Harrelson’s memoir. The third paper attends to Leslie Marmon Silko’s artistic expression as an Indigenous storyteller. The final paper offers a reading of Edward Elgar’s setting of Saint John Henry Newman’s poem, The Dream of Gerontius.
This paper examines the way Nana Kwame Adeji-Brenyah's novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, asks us to redefine our concepts of freedom and annihilation. Set in a dystopian world where prisoners are able to obtain 'freedom' if they fight in gladiator style death matches, the novel constantly twists how we wish freedom or annihilation are experienced. Both in this setting, and his many factual footnotes on mass incarceration, the novel reminds us of Katie Cannon's foundational work on understanding the dignity reclaimed by enslaved peoples. In this paper, I argue that these redefinitions are also calling those in privilege to practice annihilation, in seeking a more true freedom and empowerment of all people.
Do the united discourses of freedom and secularity function in a singular way across the contexts of coercive colonial control in which they are deployed? Can the ideological union between secularity and freedom really be analyzed singularly, or is it more accurately understood as a cluster of related but ultimately discrete phenomena? In this paper, I will use the case study of freedom and secularity in Sydney Owenson’s 1806 novel The Wild Irish Girl as an example of the idiosyncrasy with which these interrelated discourses can function in comparison with frequently circulated theories. Through this analysis, I will come to a methodological suggestion that it may be useful to build on theories of secularization and colonialism with contextually specific analysis, greater descriptive accuracy to general theoretical characterizations. What could we gain from moving from speaking of “secularism” as such to a discussion of related but discrete “secularisms?”
This presentation attends to Silko’s artistic expression as an Indigenous storyteller, honoring the stories she weaves from her Indigenous traditions in pursuit of sovereignty and freedom--two different yet related terms. In the act of listening to Silko’s stories, questions are posed: What is the connection between storytelling and having sources of sovereignty and freedom, especially in times of oppression and despair? The presentation starts by exploring the liberating power of Indigenous storytelling. It then focuses on nuclear storied landscapes in Silko’s novels, Ceremony and Almanac of the Dead. We discover artistic storytelling for achieving two kinds of freedom: Sovereignty to enable accountability to the land and its people; and freedom from environmental racism and other forms of settler oppression. The presentation concludes with the curative role of artistic storytelling, assisting humans to survive and even flourish as they seek freedom and justice in the face of the catastrophic.
This paper offers a reading of Edward Elgar’s setting of Saint John Henry Newman’s poem, The Dream of Gerontius, and argues that the work reveals Elgar’s ambivalence about his Catholic faith at the same time as he celebrates it. 125 years after its premiere, Gerontius remains one of Elgar’s most highly regarded and most performed works, but its current canonical status disguises both the contentiousness of Elgar’s choice of text and the mixed critical reception the work initially received. Informed not only by research into Elgar’s religious faith and compositional practice but also by insights gained from conducting Gerontius, this paper will demonstrate how musical choices can convey theological concerns just as eloquently as words. In Gerontius, Elgar asserted his freedom both to be a Catholic in a society in which that identity disadvantaged him, and to question the tenets of the faith in which he was raised.
This paper explores how the Black prophetic tradition manifests in the current Black Lives Matter era through a consideration of Angela Harrelson’s memoir, Lift Your Voice: How My Nephew George Floyd's Murder Changed the World. I argue that Harrelson’s autobiographical appeal demonstrates a shift in the source and scope of Black prophetic literature and orations in the current political moment. Artistic expertise, oratorical ability, political fame, or academic pedigree are no longer the sole qualifications for Black prophecy-making. Everyday aunts can render prophetic thought by virtue of their proximity to police brutality’s latest victim. Analyzing Harrelson’s prophetic intonations demonstrates how Harrelson is one among other Black maternal figures that challenge existing conversations around the scope and source of Black prophetic tradition, demonstrating a shift from “exceptional prophets” to “everyday prophets” in the Black Lives Matter era.