Acknowledgments  vii

Prelude. "The Fierce Urgency of Now"; Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation  xi

Introduction. Dissolving Dogma: Improvisation, Rights, and Difference  1

1. Sounding Truth to Power: Improvisation, Black Mobility, and Resources for Hope  33

2. Improvisation and Encounter: Rights in the Key of Rifference  57

3. Improvising Community: Rights and Improvisation as Encounter Narratives  99

4. Improvisation, Social Movements, and Rights in New Orleans  141

5. Art to Find the Pulse of the People: We Know This Place  171

6. "The Fierce Urgency of Now": Improvisation, Social Practice, and Togetherness-in-Difference  189

Coda  231

Notes  245

Works Cited  263

Index  281

“This is a book which deserves to be widely read.”—Lou Glandfield, Times Literary Supplement

“This is a book which deserves to be widely read.”—Lou Glandfield, Times Literary Supplement

"The Fierce Urgency of Now is a groundbreaking and, in many instances, breathtaking book. Its focus on the ways that musicians from many backgrounds and genres think about and enact improvisation as linked to issues of human rights, community, and freedom is innovative, and the argument that human rights are expanded and valuably reconceptualized by improvisational practices is even more inventive and generative. This book should be read by scholars and students working on social justice and the political, social, and visionary importance of expressive cultures all over the world."—Tricia Rose, Professor, Brown University, and author of The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop—and Why It Matters

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