1. BLACK MUSIC IN OUR
HANDS
BERNICE REAGON
(REVELATIONS 71-74)
PROCESS EXPOSITORY MODE POWER POINT
PRESENTATION
BY:
DOMINIQUE ALEXIS, ASHLEY WILLIAMS, JAMISON
HARRIS, AND ALBERT ELLIS

2. WHAT IS EXPOSITORY
?
 Expository writing gives information, explains something,
clarifies a process or defines a concept. Though objective
and not dependent on emotion, expository writing may be
lively, engaging, and reflective of the writer's underlying
commitment to the topic.

3. COMPONENTS OF AN
EXPOSITORY ESSAY
 Development of a main idea
 Support the main idea using facts or examples
 Presentation of logically organized information
 Commitment to the topic

4. PURPOSE OF
EXPOSITORY IS TO:
 Inform
 Clarify
 Explain
 Define
 Instruct

5. PROCESS ANALYSIS
Why do we use process analysis?
 When you want to learn how to do something, or how something
works or is done.
What are the two types of process analysis?
 Instructional and Informative (used for most academic writing)

6. “BLACK MUSIC IN OUR
HANDS”
 Purpose is to identify how the author uses the writing
process to get the message across the reader.
 Black Music in Our Hands was written as an
expository essay with a purpose of describing her
story early roots with music.

7. FIRST LEVEL OF
AWARENESS
 As she got interested in
black music she sung three
different types.
 Spiritual sung by the
college choir, Rhythm and
Blues (R&B) done by and
for the blacks, church
music.

8. MUSIC AS A PART OF
CULTURAL EXPRESSION
 As she saw black choral
singing with huge, powerful,
rich congressional response.
The beats to the hymn were
clapping call-and-response.
 People singing and praying
until they shouted.
 She realized that the church
took people from their calm
selves to a place physical and
intellectual worked in harmony
with the spirit.
 Church did something more for
her culture and it was a vital
part of it since before her time
and will remain one after.
 The way the author was
describing the church scene,
you could tell that she was
passionate to be a part of
how we express ourselves.

9. REALIZATION
 After her first march for the
Civil Rights movement, her
perception of music
changed.
 Unaware of her actions, she
changed the song she was
singing to fit to the particular
moment she was doing at
that time.
 Since the Civil Rights
Movement we still sing and
rap about songs about
what’s going on in the
community or just what we
are going through
individually.

10. THESIS
 “Although I was not consciously aware of it, this was
one of my earliest experiences with how my music
was supposed to function. This music was to be
integrative of and consistent with everything I was
doing at that time; it was to be tied to activities that
went beyond artistic affairs such as concerts, dances
and church meetings.”

11. BERNICE IN JAIL
 As Bernice sat inside the jail cell along side everyone
else she reached a new level of awareness.
 Her jail experience allowed her to connect with
members of her community that she had never came
into contact with before.
 The Albany Movement
 The Freedom Singers

12. BERNICE AS A LEADER
 As a young leader, Bernice found herself leading
younger women in song, discussions, and speaking
with prison officials.
 She used music as an instrument to shape her reality.

13. THE ALBANY
MOVEMENT
 Took place in Albany, Georgia
 A desegregation coalition formed by SNCC, the
SCLC, and the NAACP.
 Leaders: William G. Anderson, Martin L. King, JR.

14. GEORGIA SEA ISLAND
SINGERS
 “The Georgia Sea Island Singers,
whom I first heard at the Newport
Festival, were a major link. Bessie
Jones, coming from within twenty
miles of Albany, Georgia, had a
repertoire and song-leading style I
recognized from the churches I
had grown up in. She, along with
John Davis, would talk about
songs that Black people had sung
as slaves and what those songs
meant in terms of their struggle to
be free. The songs did not sound
like the spirituals I had sung in
college choirs; they sounded like
the songs I had grown up with in
church. There I had been told the
songs had to do with worship of
Jesus Christ.

15. THREE COMPONENTS
 Music she had found in the
Civil Rights Movement
 Songs of the Georgia Sea
Island Singers, and their
relationship to the struggle of
Black peoples during slavery
 “Songs of the church that
now sounded like those
traditional songs that came
close to having, for many
people, the same kind of
freeing power.”

16. MOTHER OF THE
CHURCH THAT HER
FATHER PASTORED
 Focused on the sound, tune, rhythm, chant, whether
the moans came at the proper pace and intensity.
 Happened to hear every word that she said
 Song felt like a storytelling of the Black community in
Albany, Georgia.

17. PURPOSE OF
COLLECTION, STUDY,
AND CREATION OF
BLACK MUSIC
 To reveal the subliminal message of struggle
 To highlight what the music has to say about the faith
and heritage of the Black community

18. SEARCH FOR MESSAGES
IN CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT MUSIC
 Jazz, rhythm and blues;
gospel
 Gospel choirs became the
major musical vehicle in the
urban center of Birmingham,
with the choir led by Carlton
Reese.
 Gospel choir also led by Ben
Branch in Chicago IL
 Realized that music during
the civil rights movement
was derived from folk music
as well

19. JAZZ

20. JAZZ AND BLACK
MUSIC
 Jazz music has no words
 Jazz music contains “power, intensity, and movement
under various degrees of pressure, it had vocal
texture and color” (Revelations 74).
 The music conveyed emotion without using words.

21. THE EMOTION OF JAZZ
 The music conveyed the emotions of the Black
community.
 Jazz related to the hardships and struggles in the
community.
 “The music knew how to be Black and Down, Black
and Angry, Black and Loved, Black and Fighting”
(Revelations 74).

22. BLACK’S MUSIC
EXISTENCE AND
ARTISTS
 Black Music exists everywhere that black people
thrive.
 It exists everywhere that black people struggle, live,
and think.
 Black Artists must know the world around them and
allow their expression to convey their feelings.

23. BLACK MUSIC WORKS
TOGETHER AS A
WHOLE
 “Blues, gospel, ballads, dance, rhythm, jazz, and love
songs all make up Black Music” (Revelations 74).
 Black music is necessary to relate to the people and
community that provide it with its inspiration to
express itself.

24. WORKS CITED
 Maimon, Elaine P. Howard University Student
Handbook for Writers.
Boston: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2010.
United States of America.
 Redd, Teresa M. Revelations.
New York: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2010.
United States of America.

25. QUESTIONS
 What are some examples that back up the thesis?
 What were some of the things that Civil Rights
activists did to make it through their periods of jail
time?
 Do you believe that black music today still tells
stories?
 Why do we need black music?