Open AccessSacred Positions: A Personal History of Blindness and Singing
Author(s) -
Emily K. Michael
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
disability studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2159-8371
pISSN - 1041-5718
DOI - 10.18061/dsq.v38i3.6476
Subject(s) - singing , narrative , privilege (computing) , immediacy , harp , mythology , aesthetics , blindness , power (physics) , art , sociology , literature , history , visual arts , art history , philosophy , computer science , acoustics , epistemology , medicine , physics , computer security , quantum mechanics , optometry
This narrative essay explores a blind singer's experience with church singing, a cappella competitions, and Sacred Harp singing. In it, Emily K. Michael maps the conflicts between pervasive disability narratives and audience expectations, as well as the evolving challenges of each genre. Michael discovers that audiences carry the alluring myth of a cure across genres and venues. She comes to privilege the cooperative power of Sacred Harp singing, where personal talent and conventional rehearsal give way to immediacy and welcome. Sacred Harp singing helps Michael transform her own destructive beliefs and the problematic stories of blindness she has encountered.