Music History and Culture
Peer reviewed
Abstract
Abstract
Jazz and Blues during the Harlem Renaissance served as sites of political resistance. Jazz and Blues music produced collective knowledge that goes beyond discourses in literature. The improvisations in Jazz, the call-and-response technique, alongside the stage performances of Blues, such as that of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, show how music serves as resistance to the erasure of history, reclaiming of gendered respectability and racial capitalism. Using Black feminist theory, performance studies and sonic theory, this paper will help explore how Harlem Renaissance music serves as an alternative archive for Black political resistance through collective participation, embodiment and sound. The paper will help examine how not only literature but performance, too, can become the site of political thought. Music during the Harlem Renaissance re-enacts and redefines resistance through collectivity and embodied experience.
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@article{Mandal2026Harlem,
title = {Harlem Renaissance and performative politics: sounding resistance through Jazz and Blues},
author = {Subham Mandal},
journal = {Black Histories},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1080/28325281.2026.2732152},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1080/28325281.2026.2732152}
}FAQ
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