I Got a Song I Can Sing: A Thematic Analysis of Blues Epistemologies

Abstract The work of Clyde Woods sits at the nexus of critical, urban, and cultural geographies: blues epistemology offers a guide to reading cultural production of marginalised groups as maps, containing alternative visions of the past, present, and future. However, research extending his multifaceted blues epistemologies has been limited and can approach them in a piecemeal fashion. Analysing his work and work that extends his writing, I locate five themes critical to the blues: (1) vernacular epistemologies and organic intellectualism; (2) cultural studies and activist art/istry; (3) environmental catastrophe and ecological crisis; (4) uneven development and spatial imaginaries; and (5) political praxis and better futures. This paper provides a foundation for thinking through the blues as a theoretical framework for approaching research. Asking who has found his framework helpful and to what ends, this paper brings together for future reference numerous works by a diverse set of scholars as a secondary literature of the blues.