Do A Little Signifyin[g]

I am going to talk several times while I am here; so now I will do a little singing. I have not heard any singing since I came here.

-Sojourner Truth, "Keeping the Thing Going While Things Are Stirring," Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights Association, May 9, 1867. 

Gates demonstrates how rhetoric changes based on the addition of new communities, especially those that have been oppressed. In his investigation of African American Signifyin[g], Gate explains how African American communities take on new signifiers and meanings by repurposing or decolonizing words. He also includes the reclamation of the term “monkey” and dispels pejorative uses of Signifyin[g]. Because of the rhetorical situations African American rhetors respond to, such as speaking in churches or in street address, signifyin[g] becomes a valuable tool for entering conversation, if a bit antagonistic. Signifyin[g], which resists a concrete linguistic definition, becomes a techne of rhetoric - it becomes a tool of invention, delivery, and composition. Although Gates brings in literary criticism, it seems this rhetorical tradtion is more aural/oral, returning to speech as the primary mode of delivery.

Although Holmes reiterates some of the expansion of rhetoric in his case study of Fred Shuttlesworth and his use of African American discourse techniques, he also points out that American civil rights rhetorics draw from similar influences. It seems, while techne may have changed and expanded, topoi for invention and drafting of speech acts have remained the same. Although Shuttlesworth made different use of the Bible than did the KKK or other civil rights opponents, each turns to the scripture to foretell an apocalyptic social collapse directly resulting from in/action regarding civil rights.

I’m also very interested in the expansion of delivery or forms of discourse that occurs when more communities are invited to participate in their own rhetorical traditions. African American rhetorical traditions make room for more verbal forms of delivery, but also make room for dance, singing, and gesturing. I prefaced this blog post with a quote from Sojourner Truth’s closing line from “Keeping the Thing Going While Things Are Stirring.” Truth is one of my all-time favorite feminist speakers. In her speeches, she makes use of many of the verbal tropes and topoi that Gates and Holmes explore in their respective works, especially Biblical references, anaphora, and repetition. When I first read “Keeping the Thing Going,” though, it was this last line that struck me, left me dumbfounded, and stilled something in me. There is a rhetorical power, not only in Truth’s singing, but in her recognizing the silence that moved her to sing in the first place. I didn't expect it, perhaps because I am so situated in a white American rhetorical tradition, but it seemed a beautiful and poignant way to assert a new set of values for a perhaps unfamiliar audience.   

I’ve included two versions of Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” here in this post. One version is read by Alice Walker and another read by actress and singer Nkechi. Walker’s version of the speech includes laughter and some response from the audience while Nkechi’s version is delivered to a mostly silent audience on a TED Talk stage. There’s a difference, I think, in the videos. Somehow, Walker’s reading feels more authentic and more powerful because it recognizes more of the conventions, such as audience response, that makes African American rhetorical tradition unique. What do y’all think?