Conjuring Sacred Space in Gulf Coast Cities
In the midst of the disarray and divisiveness that accompanies the pervasive presence of poverty, political powerlessness, and racism, working class black artists and activists in the underscapes of New Orleans and Houston deploy creative place making to transform urban sacrifice zones into sacred s...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
|---|---|
| Subtitles: | SPIRITED TOPOGRAPHIES ROUNDTABLE |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2018]
|
| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
|
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
New Orleans, La.
/ Houston, Tex.
/ The Americas
/ Blacks
/ Working class
/ Afro-American syncretism
/ Religiosity
/ Publicity
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBQ North America |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In the midst of the disarray and divisiveness that accompanies the pervasive presence of poverty, political powerlessness, and racism, working class black artists and activists in the underscapes of New Orleans and Houston deploy creative place making to transform urban sacrifice zones into sacred spaces. Staging festive street parades and performances in New Orleans and converting abandoned row houses into a collectively created work of living sculpture in Houston constitute acts of conjuring and creative place making. By telling alternative and oppositional stories about the history of these cities and their people, artistic projects turn places of containment and confinement into venues for envisioning and enacting new kinds of physical and psychological mobility. They counter the harsh realities in impoverished communities by honoring the deceased through performances that figuratively bring them back to life, honor departed ancestors and summon their spirits, and offer resilient love as an antidote to social death. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfx087 |