Homeplace of Hands: Fractal Performativity of Vulnerable Resistance is a feminist autoethnography of possibility that puts on display two new concepts I’ve named fractal performativity and vulnerable resistance. Fractal performativity as a way of seeing is an integrative performance methodology that utilizes fractal geometry and performative autoethnography and brings together performance studies, feminist theory, multiethnic literature, personal story and poetry to communicate vulnerable resistance as a strategy for social transformation and selfhood. Vulnerable resistance as a way of being embodies a praxis of homeplace enacted through five modes I’ve identified as nurturance, sustenance, maintenance, performance, and alliance, expressed through the daily work of the hand as a metaphor, tool, and fractal. Deploying fractal performativity as an integrative method and conceptual framework, I design the fractal hand as a template that embodies intersecting identities and holds my stories as I cultivate homeplace and enact vulnerable resistance through the five modes. For scholar-artist- activists working on the margins, this integrative strategy offers hope to keep coming back day after day, and a template for cultivating homeplace of vulnerable resistance.

This project will expand and extend the current concept of homeplace, as offered by cultural critic and scholar bell hooks. In doing so, it will assess the various ways that home has been constructed by persons of African descent, and suggests that homeplace is a form of maroonage that is manifested both physically and psychologically. In addition to conceptually theorizing on homeplace, this project will also introduce Homeplace Theory, a theoretical prescriptive to the issue of diminished and erased cultural consciousness amongst persons of African descent. Additionally, this project will explain the historical and socio-cultural role the Africana woman plays in the creation and maintenance of homeplace. By privileging Afrocentricity as the primary theoretical thrust, Homeplace Theory finds an intellectual home within the Afrocentric Paradigm with the addition of Afrocentric principles in the creation and explanation of Homeplace Theory. Afrocentricity also validates the subjective inquiry of African derived phenomena. In this regard, this project fortifies the intellectual subjective investigation of the Afrocentric enterprise within the discipline of Africology/Africana Studies/African American Studies. / African American Studies

“Our Voices Matter” is my own reckoning as a music educator with homeplace in my music classroom using autoethnography as a method. My research is guided by the question “What is homeplace — for myself, my students, and for us together?” Data were collected through personal recollection, journal writing, vignettes, written interviews, public videos of student performances, blog posts, and news articles over a span of ten years of teaching at New Bridges Elementary in Brooklyn, NY. Data were analyzed through bell hooks’ definition of homeplace and Bettina Love’s usage of homeplace. I reckoned with the extent to which I experienced homeplace, perceived homeplace for my students, and actualized a homeplace that is welcoming of both my students and myself. Findings showed that my understanding of homeplace shifted over my ten years of teaching through the interactions with my students, and societal and cultural reckonings that inevitably affected the shared classroom space with my students. My use of language, content I taught, and personal voice were affected by pivotal experiences throughout my teaching career and personal life that started separately but ultimately intersected in my music classroom. The Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate movements collectively played active roles in the lived experiences of my students and me. The influences and intersections of these two movements in my elementary classroom led to multiple reckonings through unapologetic freedom dreaming where my students and I visioned futures that prioritize our racial identities, whole selves, and joy through music making, creating, and coexistence in shared space. In this study, I illuminate the complexities of my personal teaching practice and experience as a music educator that is inclusive of but also goes beyond music for music’s sake. The findings of my study may spark new understandings for educators about the ways that one’s positionalities and lived experiences affect the music classroom space. The findings may also be useful for those teachers grappling with the critical movements in our society which affect both our students and ourselves and require discussion and reckoning within the classroom. Although the findings are not meant to be extrapolated to any reader’s own classroom or students, this study reflects the emotional and mental shifts that have occurred in my teaching and being and as such may ignite personal reflection and shifts for the reader.

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