Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Ellie Armon AzoulayORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
The aim of this essay is to reintroduce Willis Laurence James’s (1900-1960) radical practiceas a collector and a critic of the field of collecting. James – one of the fascinating, yetunderstudied collector who documented the music and songs of African American men andwomen around the American South between the mid-1920s and mid-1940s. Thisinterdisciplinary study makes use of archival documents, musical recordings, letters andphotographs to show that his practice of collecting was one of refusal, resistance andreclamation: part of an overall project of empowerment. James resisted the status quo withinAfrican American folk music collection and exposed the limits of its domination by whitecollectors. He refused the conditions imposed on African Americans by the discriminatoryand violent system of segregation; he refused to accept the material conditions of scarcity andhe worked vigorously to remedy the neglect and the poverty and to create infrastructures andopportunities through music collecting, education and performance. He reclaimed hisauthority in the face of denial and he reclaimed the centrality and the contribution ofindividuals and communities by centring his collecting on their lived experiences.
Author(s): Armon Azoulay E
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Comparative American Studies: An International Journal
Year: 2021
Volume: 18
Issue: 3
Pages: 355-379
Online publication date: 22/11/2021
Acceptance date: 10/10/2021
Date deposited: 08/11/2021
ISSN (print): 1477-5700
ISSN (electronic): 1741-2676
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14775700.2021.2003136
DOI: 10.1080/14775700.2021.2003136
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
