Conjuring Sacred Space in Gulf Coast Cities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8201606
AutoresGeorge Lipsitz (Department of Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen86
Número2
Páginas497-525
Fecha de publicación2018-05-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the American Academy of Religion (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0002-7189 • E-ISSN: 1477-4585
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jaarel/lfx087
OpenAlexW2792726502
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas16

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.

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Honor · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Racism · Sacrifice · Sculpture · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Visual arts · Working class · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Public Spaces through Art