Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age

Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

by Adam J. Banks

Scholar Adam J. Banks offers a mixtape of African American digital rhetoric in his innovative study Digital African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age. Presenting the DJ as a quintessential example of the digital griot-high-tech storyteller-this book shows how African American storytelling traditions and their digital manifestations can help scholars and teachers shape composition studies, thoroughly linking oral, print, and digital production in ways that centralize African American discursive practices as part of a multicultural set of ideas and pedagogical commitments. DJs are models of rhetorical excellence; canon makers; time binders who link past, present, and future in the groove and mix; and intellectuals continuously interpreting the history and current realities of their communities in real time. Banks uses the DJ's practices of the mix, remix, and mixtape as tropes for reimagining writing instruction and the study of rhetoric. He combines many of the debates and tensions that mark black rhetorical traditions and points to ways for scholars and students to embrace those tensions rather than minimize them. This commitment to both honoring traditions and embracing futuristic visions makes this text unique, as do the sites of study included in the mixtape culture, black theology as an activist movement, everyday narratives, and discussions of community engagement. Banks makes explicit these connections, rarely found in African American rhetoric scholarship, to illustrate how competing ideologies, vernacular and academic writing, sacred and secular texts, and oral, print, and digital literacies all must be brought together in the study of African American rhetoric and in the teaching of culturally relevant writing. A remarkable addition to the study of African American rhetorical theory and composition studies, Digital African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age will compel scholars and students alike to think about what they know of African American rhetoric in fresh and useful ways.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Steve Llano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banks presents a very lucid, very well researched, and very well thought through case for how digital rhetorics should transform the way composition and the creation of rhetoric are considered, researched, and taught. I say "should" because unlike so many other books about how digital tools will transform or alter or "de-center" our approach to composition, he leaves the burden squarely on those of us who are in the classroom and in front of the laptop.

The griot is the primary figure for his study - which is a figure that has the agency of the remix, the sample, the combination, and the attention of the audience for a bit. They are politicians, ministers, archivists, and entertainers, artists, and musicians. It's a wonderful figure rooted in the tradition of African-American rhetoric that has been overlooked and underused as the perfect sort of subject position that can take on the digital transformation of composition and handle it with relative ease.

This book is a bit dated now - some of the terms and considerations of the technology seem a bit old, but that's ok - the book holds up because it places the transformation on us. Some of the best writing in the book is about the remix and plagiarism, continuously asking us, after the comedian Bernie Mac: "Who you wit?" This continuous pitching of the need for change to the reader is not only more realistic - computers and networks can easily be ignored as we teach rhetoric, or repurposed for our old ideas - but also highly politically charged. What the book lacks in up to date technology discussion it more than makes up for by showing us how long and how necessary the push for anti-racism in teaching has been.

I really enjoyed thinking about DJ culture not as a metaphor for writing, but as writing, as composition. I appreciate the author's narratives about going out into Syracuse, NY and teaching writing groups and having people compose and share. Seems like a great idea just about anywhere. And the best part of the book for me was the section on Black Theology. I found that chapter to be incredibly well researched, and beautifully articulated. It's really a great example of how the DJ - and everything we think is new about the DJ - is old, rooted, and remixed itself in the traditions of scholarship and rhetoric that exist all around us.

[Helena Soares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great book and resource overall. I'd also suggest watching the author's NCTE talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYt3s...

[William Torgerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm recording a podcast with Dr. Roseanne Gatto and Dr. Carmen Kynard Wed. Dec. 14th to discuss this book. Carmen gets some mentions in the text. I'm giving this a quick re-read before next week.

Here's a quote I like from the first chapter:

...anyone still attempting to argue that Ebonics is a problem for black students or that it is somehow connected to a lack of intelligence or lack of desire to achieve is about as useful as a Betamax video cassette player, and it's time for those folks to be retired, be they teachers, administrators, or community leaders, so the rest of us can try to do some real work in the service of equal access for black students and all students. (15)

Podcast Discussion:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/thetorg/Ban...

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banks argues that the emerging digital technologies offer new opportunities to extend an African-American tradition of performative, multimodal, narrative-based writing. Banks himself performs as well as states his a case in a book that is playful in its prose and imaginative in its form.