Full Description
In Art as Sanctuary, Michael D. Harris considers literal and metaphorical uses of sanctuary in the Black experience and African diaspora art, including locales of spiritual expression, self-renewal, and cultural celebration. Harris offers an alternative framework to the Duboisian philosophy of double consciousness, pushing the boundaries of Africana aesthetic analysis by exploring the cultural signifiers embedded consciously or unconsciously in African diaspora art. Within these works, he reveals how these cultural cues speak to the vibrancy of African American life. While acknowledging the presence of the white observer's gaze, Harris wishes to relieve the black interior from the panoptic assumptions of that gaze and its disciplines. Art as Sanctuary provides innovative pathways to understand African American visual culture and music as autobiographies of cultural identity and experience.
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Foreword / Richard J. Powell ix
Editors' Introduction. Michael D. Harris: Cultural Theorist of Africana Identity, Art, and Spirituality / Dianne M. Stewart and Theophus H. Smith xvii
Introduction. Sanctuary and the Black Interior 1
1. The Moan: Calling Forth Culture 27
2. Etymologies and Black Love 50
3. From The Banjo Lesson to The Piano Lesson: Reclaiming the Song 70
4. Fish Fry Music: A Blues Aesthetic 87
5. Gospel, Tongues, and Bearing Witness 114
6. Undone: Bottle Trees, Charms, and Flashing Spirits 132
7. Talking in Tongues: Revisiting/Reflecting Kara Walker 156
Conclusion. Bebop Ghosts and Freedom Songs 174
Notes 191
Bibliography 213
Index
