As their time with the DRC draws to a close, the 2020-2021 DRC Fellows offer reflections on their experiences, what they’ve learned, and where they go from here. This past year has continued to highlight challenges for justice, safety, teaching, researching, and living in the world, yet it has also provided opportunities for digital rhetoric to explore solutions and larger conversations around these challenges. Our blog carnivals explored how teachers and scholars have been navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s podcast series offered insights, challenges, and celebrations around Black sound. We also saw the beginnings of a new crowd-sourced syllabus…
Author: Rachel Dortin
D'Arcee Neal, Nupoor Ranade, Jathan Day, Jianfen Chen, Sarah Hughes, Danielle Koepke, Kimberly Williams
Rachel Dortin is an Assistant Professor of Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. Her research interests sit at the nexus of embodiment, community-engaged learning, and theories of difference.
D’Arcee and Kimberly are back following the declaration of Juneteenth as a Federal holiday…and we have thoughts about that; and why Maroon 5, Taylor Swift, and the ever omni-presence of country music seems to be in all public spaces, but black sound isn’t. Have you ever wondered why you’ll only hear rap music (even edited versions) in teen stores, or clubs, but movie theatres, restaurants, theme parks and public areas play predominately white music? That’s the subject of discussion in this fascinating two part episode; where we hear from University of Utah History Professor Eric Herschthal about the correlations of…
Hot off the presses, DRC Fellows Kimberly Williams and D’Arcee Neal are back with another episode of The Sonic Renaissance, focusing on the past, present, and future of black sound! This episode we take some time to talk about the verdict of Derek Chauvin, and the appetite for black music as it changes through time. Looking at R & B, Pop, Grunge, Rock, Experimental and Neo Soul, we talk to music critic for Spectrum magazine Peter Tabakis about the role of criticism in black music taste and what makes for a good cleaning soul over something worthy of an award.…
This year, after the world loudly and unapologetically announced that “Black Lives Matter,” within our 20-21 cohort, we wanted to do something to honor the spirit of that proclamation. African American culture is built on, part of, akin to, and styled as oratorical rhetoric, and so DRC Fellows D’Arcee Charington Neal and Kimberly Williams have built this podcast, The Sonic Renaissance as an evolving conversation of black rhetorical space that foregrounds the work of: music, healing, sound, and life in the digital space of audio. Featuring a meditation from sound sorcerer Kiru Greene, and a conversation with Hip-Hop Tech Writer,…