“Time is one of the ways in which power operates,"
ABSTRACT: Across the dissertation, I argue that artists such as Josephine Baker, Victoria Santa Cruz, and Miriam Makeba develop distinct temporal practices through performance that reshape the conditions of performer–audience encounter. Baker mobilizes vocal acceleration, Makeba employs vocal rupture, and Santa Cruz theorizes vocal suspension through what she terms internal rhythm. Ultimately, this project advances the broader claim that Black feminist creatives should be understood not as passive representations of artistic practice, but as political agents who have long sustained an intellectual practice through their art.
