In this talk I consider Stevie Wonder's exploration of technologies in his pursuit of artistic independence from Motown in the early 1970s as an invocation and deployment of the Talking Book, a trope of literacy for freedom emerging from Black oral traditions. I argue here that the Talking Book offers educators and community builders a framework for a critical digital literacy that helps us understand contemporary African American engagements with technologies like Twitter and can inform work with technologies in schools and community spaces.
Adam J. Banks is currently Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky, and the Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Prior to arriving at Kentucky he served on the faculty of the Writing Program at Syracuse University. In addition to these academic appointments, he served jointly with Andrea Lunsford as the Inaugural Rocky Gooch Visiting Professors for the Bread Loaf School of English, and has been invited to short term visiting scholar roles at Spelman College, Ohio State, and MIT. He is the author of Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age and Race, Rhetoric and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground, which was awarded the 2007 Best Book in Computers and Writing Award.
