Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance

Description

Male-centered theology, a dearth of men in the pews, and an overrepresentation of queer males in music ministry: these elements coexist within the spaces of historically black Protestant churches, creating an atmosphere where simultaneous heteropatriarchy and "real" masculinity anxieties, archetypes of the "alpha-male preacher", the "effeminate choir director" and homo-antagonism, are all in play. The "flamboyant" male vocalists formed in the black Pentecostal music ministry tradition, through their vocal styles, gestures, and attire in church services, display a spectrum of gender performances - from "hyper-masculine" to feminine masculine - to their fellow worshippers, subtly protesting and critiquing the otherwise heteronormative theology in which the service is entrenched. And while the performativity of these men is characterized by cynics as "flaming," a similar musicalized "fire" - that of the Holy Spirit - moves through the bodies of Pentecostal worshippers, endowing them religio-culturally, physically, and spiritually like "fire shut up in their bones". Using the lenses of ethnomusicology, musicology, anthropology, men's studies, queer studies, and theology, Flaming?: The Peculiar Theo-Politics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance observes how male vocalists traverse their tightly-knit social networks and negotiate their identities through and beyond the worship experience. Author Alisha Jones ultimately addresses the ways in which gospel music and performance can afford African American men not only greater visibility, but also an affirmation of their fitness to minister through speech and song. Title_Pages Acknowledgments Setting_the_AtmosphereAn_Introduction I_Am_DelivertThe_Pentecostal_Altar_Call_and_Vocalizing_Black_Mens_Testimonies_of_Deliverance_from_Homosexuality Men_Dont_Sing_SopranoBlack_Countertenors_and_Gendered_Sound_in_the_Sermonic_Selection Pole_Dancing_for_JesusPentecostal_Religious_Pluralism_and_the_Bodily_Performance_of_Sexual_Ambiguity_in_Liturgical_Dance Peculiar_Til_I_DIEWar_Cries_and_Undignified_Praise_in_Gospel_GoGo_Music WiredDeCoding_Tonxs_Unapologetic_Queer_Body_Theology Ritualizing_the_UnspokenMemory_Separation_and_the_Rhetorical_Art_of_Silence Church_RealnessThe_Performance_of_Discretionary_Devices_and_Heteropresentation_in_the_House_of_God Preaching_to_the_Choir_and_Being_PlayedAn_Altar_Call Appendix_A_Gospel_GoGo_Music_Lineage Appendix_B_Peculiar_People_Sound_Requirements_List Appendix_C Appendix_D Appendix_E Notes Glossary Bibliography Index