Black History Bulletin

4 | BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 83, NO. 2 (EXTENDED DIGITAL VERSION) 83 No.2 FOREWORD BLACK FAMILY CULTURE & IDENTITY: THE POETRY & RHYTHM OF BEING By Alicia L. Moore and La Vonne I. Neal This issue of the Black History Bulletin (BHB) has three co-guest editors—Regina A. Lewis (Professor of Communication), Katherine Scott Sturdevant (Professor of History), and Stephen Collins (Professor of Communication/Rhetoric)—whose collaborations resulted in a BHB issue that lives up to their motto, “Communicate to Elevate.” The theme for this issue is The Black Family: Representation, Identity, & Diversity. Authors’ contributions include topics such as (1) exploring the metaphoric “heartbeat of the Black family” through the lens of endarkened epistemology; (2) Black family history and genealogy; (3) Black families homesteading the Great Plains; (4) the Black military family; and (5) Black entrepreneurial families. To support the action-based initiatives of our readers and online teaching initiatives, the co-guest editors included: 1. A special feature, contributed by Amery Stapleton: “Classroom Library Resource Toolkit: How to Build a Classroom Library with Books to Highlight the Culture, Strength, & Integrity of the Black Family.” 2. An online teaching guide, contributed by the co-guest editors: “Teaching History Online Using Resources from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).” Expressively Black Expressively Black: The Cultural Basis of Ethnic Identity is a groundbreaking book co-edited by Dr. Geneva Gay and Dr. Willie L. Baber in 1987 that continues to serve as a research-informed blueprint for understanding Black culture and identity development. We read Expressively Black as graduate students, and it is worth noting that we danced through the book chapters with ease because they appealed to our poetic and rhythmic ways of knowing. For example, we read chapters titled “The Artistry and Artifice of Black Communication,” “From Backwoods to City Streets: The Afro-American Musical Journey,” “Theatre in Black,” “Expressive Traditions in Afro-American Visual Arts,” and “We Are Family!: Kinship and Solidarity in the Black Community,” just to name a few. Next, you will experience some of the words we highlighted in our copies of Expressively Black that enhanced our understanding of Black culture and ethnic identification and inspired our research journeys as members of the Multicultural Education Family of scholars. Black Culture Excerpt—Chapter 1, “Expressive Ethos of Afro-American Culture,” by Geneva Gay “Black culture is a lifestyle that emphasizes the artistry and aesthetics of being; emotionalism over rationality; the poetry of being over the mechanics of doing; the quality of interpersonal relations over accolades of positional status; mean processes BLACK HISTORY BULLETIN VOL. 83, NO. 2 (EXTENDED DIGITAL VERSION) | 5 83 No.2 over end products; and spontaneity and improvisation over structured and preplanned action.”1 “Thus, Black American culture is dramatic; it is engaging; it is theatrical! Its expressions, whether verbal, visual, or kinetic, are laced with allegory, symbolism, metaphor, and imagery. It is indeed, an oral and participatory, as well as an emotive and artistic culture, in that its vitality depends more on spoken words and ideas, and actions that are seen and experienced, than one mere written word.”2 Ethnic Identification Excerpt—Chapter 3, “Ethnic Identity Development & Black Expressiveness,” by Geneva Gay “Ethnic identification is a socio-psychological process. How we perceive our ethnic identity—in fact, our ethnic self-concept—results from an accumulation of life experiences, personal perceptions, social interactions, and developmental growth. Similarly, how we convey our ethnicity through our behavior reflects different levels of ethnic identity development.”3 “Throughout most of their history, Afro-Americans have experienced a barrage of negative ethnic image propaganda, laws, and customs. An essential function of slavery, cultural imperialism, assimilation, and racism has been the deliberate attempt to convince Blacks that there is something innately inferior about their ethnicity, lifestyles, and customs, simply because of their Blackness.”4 Conclusion Because we are “Expressively Black,” we conclude our foreword by reflecting on music about Black families. We invite our BHB readers to enjoy our soundtrack and travel down memory lane with us: 1. “Mama Said,” by the Shirelles—a mother’s advice about not worrying too much about what you cannot change 2. “It’s a Family Affair,” by Sly...