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Affirmative Assertions of Black Life: Making Places of Respite in Florida A&M University's Marching 100

In this dissertation, I study black geographic visions, experiences, and practices of the Marching 100 (M100) band at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and show how the black place-making practices of the Marching 100 (re)produces the black geographies of FAMU, Tallahassee, and M100 rehearsal spaces. This dissertation both draws from and makes conceptual and empirical contributions to the sub-discipline of black geographies. I show throughout this dissertation the usefulness of taking a place-making approach in studying black geographies and focus on how black place-making can be deployed as part of an affirmative celebration of black life. Conceptually, I draw on black feminist scholars to offer scholars interested in affirmative black geographies places of respite as an analytic and ontological object that is produced by (and productive of) visions and practices of black life. These places, I argue, provide relief from the burdens of oppressive articulations of society and space, and their existence amounts to a critique of these oppressive articulations. These places also offer opportunities to resist and heal harms of oppression. I also analyze the use of celebration as an affirmative, transgressive claiming of place within the city. Such celebrations, I argue, are transgressive place-making practices that can transform places and extend, temporarily, the sense of belonging places of respite provide. I also show, however, the precarity of black place-making claims. Together these chapters show the socio-spatial power of black joy/celebration and highlight the importance of black life in the production of black geographies. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 29, 2019. / Black Geographies, HBCU, Place-making, Places of Respite / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Lawhon, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Tyler McCreary, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Michael Nair-Collins, University Representative; Adam Bledsoe, Committee Member; Ronald Doel, Committee Member; Joseph Pierce, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709714
ContributorsAllen, Douglas L. (Douglas Loyd) (author), Lawhon, Mary (Professor Co-Directing Dissertation), McCreary, Tyler (Professor Co-Directing Dissertation), Nair-Collins, Michael (University Representative), Bledsoe, Adam (Committee Member), Doel, Ronald Edmund (Committee Member), Pierce, Joseph (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (degree granting college), Department of Geography (degree granting departmentdgg)
PublisherFlorida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text, doctoral thesis
Format1 online resource (124 pages), computer, application/pdf

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