This book explores how pivotal Instagram Live events Club Quarantine and Verzuz have provided respite from social isolation and a rearticulated space for Black cultural engagement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased racial tensions in the United States.

Sustaining Black Music and Culture during COVID-19: #Verzuz and Club Quarantine argues that Instagram is a premier digital leisure space to celebrate and promote Black American culture and identity, particularly evidenced during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as the United States grappled with mandated shelter-in-place orders. Club Quarantine (CQ) and Verzuz emerged as highly successful Black music-listening events streamed on Instagram Live, collectively ushering Black (techno)culture through a once-in-a-generation pandemic and beyond. Contributors to this collection explore the communicative and cultural significance of these events as respite from social isolation and as a rearticulated space for Black cultural engagement in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased racial tensions in the United States.

Foreword: One Nation under a (socially distant) Groove

Eletra S. Gilchrist-Petty

Chapter 1: Introduction

Niya Pickett Miller

Chapter 2: ‘Sisters in the name of Love’: The Rhetorical Construction of Sisterhood in the Verzuz Challenges between Gladys Knight vs. Patti Labelle And Erykah Badu vs. Jill Scott

Goyland Williams & Mtalika Banda

Chapter 3: Don’t Take it Personal: Perceptions of Authenticity, Envy and Competitiveness in the Brandy v. Monica Verzuz Battle

Aisha Damali Lockridge and Janée N. Burkhalter

Chapter 4: The Way We Were: How Black Women Created Space with Verzuz

Kirstin Cheers

Chapter 5: DJ’s Gig: Affective Hip Hop Culture and Affordances of Participatory Platforms during a Global Pandemic

June Mia

Chapter 6: Old Hits Verzuz New Technology: How a Pandemic Ushered Legacy Artists into the Clout Economy

Jabari Evans

Chapter 7: Black and Quarantined: Celebrating Black Identity During COVID-19 via Instagram

Katrina Overby, Gheni Platenburg, and Niya Pickett Miller

Chapter 8: The Culture Wins: Continuing Black Cultural Traditions through Verzuz

Karl Lyn

Chapter 9: Conclusion

Niya Pickett Miller

About the Contributors