The Rhetoric of (Re)marking at the Oscars: Performance of Place in Glory

Abstract

Abstract The 2015 Academy Awards was the year of #OscarsSoWhite, a campaign protesting the concentration of whiteness traditionally present in the Oscars' nominations, attendance, and winners. Selma received few nominations within this context and only one Oscar for the original soundtrack of Glory by John Legend and Common. The performance of the song placed Selma, AL, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the Oscar stage by replicating the material and visual images of the actual site where the 1965 violent beating of 600 protesters occurred. Using an Afrocentric lens to analyze the performance's words, sounds, and visuals, this essay argues that the performance offered characteristics of witnessing, awareness, and temporality to create an opportunity for transformation. The analysis shows the need for further transformation and the limitations such performances provide.