Identifier

etd-07082016-094845

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

In the late 1970s, the African American Jazz Coalition responded to the marginalization of black vendors at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival by partnering with the Festival to create the Koindu Marketplace, now known as Congo Square. Whereas much public representation of the Festival suggests a transcendence of racial boundaries inside Festival grounds, the content and structure of contemporary interviews with the activists reflect continued racial tensions, power dynamics, and resentment. This thesis analyzes oral histories with the founders of the Afrikan American Jazz Coalition stored at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive. Critical discourse analysis of these interviews focuses on linguistic structures and inherent frames of worldview. Juxtaposing interviewers’ intentions regarding the Festival’s mission with what the activists consider a continued marginalization of black culture, I highlight moments of both conflict and heightened self-awareness amongst the participants.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Regis, Helen

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.331

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