Beyond Time: Experiments in Performance and Abolition, Philadelphia

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dc.contributor.advisorThomas, Deborah
dc.contributor.authorNussbaum, Jake
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-22T23:06:11Z
dc.date.available2025-01-22T23:06:11Z
dc.date.copyright2024
dc.date.embargo2028-01-22 00:00:00
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.updated2025-01-22T23:06:11Z
dc.description.abstractHow do we move from a carceral state towards an abolitionist world that values Black life and human dignity, and what role does creative practice play within that work? This dissertation answers these questions through a multimodal ethnography that draws on 18 months of fieldwork with organizers in Philadelphia. “Abolitionist” here indicates a category of political organizing that 1) calls for the dismantling of prisons, policing, and their extended “carceral geographies,” and the creation of life-affirming institutions in their place (Gilmore 2022; Kaba 2021; A. Y. Davis 2003); and 2) understands anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and the unequal distribution of life-giving resources to be foundational to the liberal nation-state and its epistemologies of freedom, rights, and citizenship (Wynter 2003; Mills 2022; Hartman 1997). The central argument of this project is that embodied, creative performance practices in the Black Experimental Tradition (Reed 2014)—such as a dynamic relation between improvisation and choreography, holding ground and building presence, trauma awareness, attunement to the malleability of time and rhythm—materially contribute to the work of abolition through the ways in which they “work time” (Ahmann 2018). In Part I (Ch. 1-3), I examine the role of experimental, embodied practices in the movement to abolish collections of ancestral remains at the Penn Museum, which builds on the creative lineage of the Black musician and performance artist Sun Ra. In Part II (Ch. 4-6), I show how abolitionist organizers at The Sanctuary utilize experimental performance practices to develop police-free techniques of violence intervention and interpersonal safety, building on the legacies of Black dancers and musicians. Also included is a short film, Working Time, that elaborates the dissertation’s central claims around the malleability of time as well as a reflection on abolitionist ethnographic methods. I conclude that understanding the connections between embodied performance, political organizing, and time helps bridge scholarship on embodiment and affect with larger critiques of the state. Overall, this dissertation charts a new direction for research on the relationship between creative and political practice.
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.extent300
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/60814
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectCritical and Cultural Studies
dc.subjectArts and Humanities
dc.subjectAmerican Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
dc.subject.otherAbolition
dc.subject.otherDe-escalation
dc.subject.otherImprovisation
dc.subject.otherPerformance
dc.subject.otherPhiladelphia
dc.subject.otherTime
dc.titleBeyond Time: Experiments in Performance and Abolition, Philadelphia
dc.typeDissertation/Thesis
dspace.entity.typePublication
upenn.graduate.groupAnthropology
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