I don’t think I have ever thought of the DJ as a rhetor, and here is Banks simply blasting it all over my face; it is indeed amazing, and I am grateful for this reading and would like to own this text. One “mundane fact” I shared in my practicum class is that I used to be a professional dancer and, as a result, know quite a lot about music and rhythm. Scratch that (pun intended). I think it was my being an ardent lover of music that led me to dance. Hence, reading this article and its use of musical and DJing metaphors to discuss epistemic and pedagogical practices is like savoring a burst of flavors in my mouth.
It is also very thought-provoking that Banks’ arguments resonate so much with some of the readings we did in Modern Western Rhetoric class. Significant among them are Burke’s theorization of belonging and its influence on terministic screens, Bakhtin’s heterogeneity of speech genres, and Watts’ concept of rhetorical voice.
Hence, I totally agree with Banks’ description of writers as digital griots, and how they represent a repository of history and its connection to current and future implications. It questions the whole intention of doing research or writing. What/Whose voice are you projecting? What justice are you calling for? And how much acknowledgement are you giving to those who started those conversations? Yes, the style and the exigencies might have evolved, but in all of those new/mixed/remixed polyrhythmic “intersectional analysis, intergenerational inquiry, [and] intercultural connection” (p. 33), we all should be geared towards one cause: a social structure that is genuinely justified. (270) [TO-07]
[Banks, 2011; Burke, 1969; Bakhtin, 1986; Watts, 2001]
