CFPCA Assistant Professor Kelly Jakes Takes Rhetoric to Another Note
WSU's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts Assistant Professor Kelly Jakes combines her love of popular song with her scholarly research to prove a point: music provides a way to develop and maintain cultural and political diversity. This interdisciplinary insight has found a natural home in Detroit, and in CFPCA's Department of Communication, where Jakes teaches public address and explores social movements while conducting archival research on the uses of popular music during World War II.
Since 2014, Jakes has been a communication studies faculty member in CFPCA's Department of Communication. Her areas of research include rhetorical criticism, public address, rhetorical theory, social movements, and popular culture. Jakes has a Ph.D. (2014) and a M.A. (2009) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a B.A. from Furman University (2006).
However, Jakes had initially set out to be an opera singer following her passion for vocal music and performing. It wasn't until she was in college where she discovered communication rhetoric.
While taking a course in the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement, Jakes soon realized she would end up abandoning her first life goal of becoming an opera singer and transition into becoming an academic. Jakes realized that she could combine her love for music with the study of rhetoric in order to uncover the ways that marginalized or repressed people use pop culture to resist oppression. By researching the rhetoric of music, Jakes has unveiled how many individuals who don't have a voice often turn to music to act as their communication mechanism.
However, her interest in music stems far deeper than her research. Jakes has always enjoyed singing. She shares the story from her mother of when she was a baby and could not yet speak but loved music and would often make melodic sounds and noises. This continued love led her to becoming a current member of the Rackham Choir, Detroit's oldest community choir.
Recently she took the stage at the Detroit Opera House alongside the nearly 80-person choir for the 15th anniversary of the group's rendition of Too Hot To Handel conducted by Suzanne Acton. This annual concert has been deemed a staple performance of the Motor City, infusing Detroit-inspired styles of jazz and gospel while showcasing added touches of blues, swing, classical and scat.
"It's just a lot of fun! It feels like a rock concert sometimes," explained Jakes "Rearranging Handel is a fun way to feature a more diverse sound and really breakthrough the classical barrier."
Jakes explains that the performance showcases a nice celebration of American diversity and American spirit. The show is packed with audience participation including dancing, clapping and individuals truly enjoying themselves and the music.
Aside from her love of music, Jakes feels that it is important for her to continue to sing because it helps her to stay connected at the ground level to the subjects that she writes about.
"If I write about music and I'm not performing music, I feel like I'm a fraud, somehow. It is important to me to have some type of interaction with the subject that I am studying. It keeps me grounded.
Interested in hearing Kelly's melodic gift or attending one of Rackham's performances? Visit rackhamchoir.org or check out their social media sites @RackhamChoir.
###
By: Da'Stanza Murphy, CFPCA Information Officer II
Email: az2370@wayne.edu