ASHÉ: Ritual Poetics in African Diasporic Expression

Contents

• EDITORIAL NOTES
• Paul Carter Harrison
• INTRODUCTION
• Theophus "Thee" Smith...THE GLOBALIZATION OF AFRICANA AESTHETICS
• PART I: ASHE' CONCEPTUAL FRAME
• FRONTSIEPIECE: Wangechi Mutu, Riding Death in my Sleep
• Chapter 1. Pellom McDaniels....LIKE ECHOS ACROSS THE CONTINUUM: WANGECHI MUTU'S
• NEW HORIZONS IN AFRO-COSMOLOGY
• Chapter 2. Clyde Taylor...SALT PEANUTS: SOUND AND SENSE IN AFRICAN/AMERCAN ORAL/MUSICAL CREATIVY
• Chapter 3. Rowland Abiodun.........ASHE': THE EMPOWERED WORD MUST COME TO PASS
• Chapter 4. Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde...SEEING AS A RITUAL FOR A GOOD DEATH: THE SPIRITUAL CONSTRUCTION OF ALAIN GOMIS' FILM, TEY
• PART II: ASHE' CULTURAL FRAME
• FRONTSIEPIECE: Eric Waters, Medicine Man
• Chapter 5. Michael D. Harris...........ERIC WATERS: CAPTURING THE CULTURE IN PHOTOS
• Chapter 6. Michael McMillan...............DUB IN THE FRONT ROOM: MIGRANT AESTHETICS OF
• THE SACRED AND SECULAR
• Chapter 7. Oliver Lee Jackson......SENSIBILITY AND THE AFRICAN CONTINUUM
• Chapter 8. Marta Moreno Vega..........I WILL NOT BE ERASED
• PART III: ASHE' AND ARTS DISCIPLINES
• FRONTIESPIECE: Oliver Lee Jackson, UNTITLED ( 5.21.95)
• Chapter 9. Paul Carter Harrison.....AESTHETICS OF BEAUTY: IN AN AFRICANA MODE
• Chapter 10. Michael D. Harris..........UNDONE: BOTTLES, TREES, CHARMS, & FLASHING SPIRITS
• Chapter 11. Gregory Tate...........BEBOP, HIP HOP AND CONDUCTIVITY
• GLOSSARY
• Arturo Lindsay........ASHE AT THE CROSSROADS: Aesthetic Criteria, Glossary, Terms, and Bibliography
• BIOGRAPHIES
• Editors
• Michael D. Harris is an Associate Professor Emeritus of African American Studies at Emory University; he holds a BA in Education, BGSU; MFA in Painting, Howard University; MA in African American Studies, Yale, MA, MPhil, and Ph.D. in History of Art fr
• Dr. Harris was named to the list of curators and scholars, "25 Who Made a Difference," in the fall 2001 issue of International Review of African American Art. The list includes David Driskell, James Porter, Samella Lewis, Richard Powell, and Jeff Dona
• Currently Prof. Harris has a book-length manuscript, Sanctuary: Conjuring an Africana Art Aesthetic in production at Duke University Press. Also, he has written contributions for the African Art textbook, A History of Art in Africa (2000, 2007), and w
• In addition to doing curatorial work at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art and Culture in Charlotte, Prof. Harris worked as a curatorial consultant for five years at the High Museum in Atlanta, and has worked independently as a curato
• Additionally, Prof. Harris is a practicing artist and a long-time member of the artist collective, AfriCOBRA He has exhibited his work across the United States, in Europe, and in the Caribbean and is represented in many public and private collections.
• Paul Carter Harrison is an award-winning playwright/director/theorist who has spent the last 50 years of his prodigious career as artist and scholar pursuing ritual expression in the African Diaspora.
• Exemplary of the ritual stylization of text and music was the Negro Ensemble Company production of one of his most significant works for stage, The Great Macdaddy garnered an Obie Award in the early Seventies. Also, in the same period, became the auth
• Pellom McDaniels III
• Prior to becoming a highly esteemed scholar, McDaniels had been a reliable force as a Defensive Lineman in the National Football League (NFL). Following a successful career (1991-98) a trait of relentless pursuit he exhibited in his scholarship, McDan
• In 2014, he was instrumental in writing and winning an NEH (National Endowment of the Humanities) grant to support a 3 week Summer Institute at Emory campus for College and University Teachers under the rubric of Black Aesthetics and African Centered
• An accomplished poet and essayist, his publications included: "The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy" (2013); So, You Want to be Pro (2000), My Own Harlem (1998); "We're American Too: The Negro Leagues and the Philosophy of Resistance"
• McDaniels, who passed suddenly in 2020, was an adherent of the Baha'i Faith, utilizing its teachings and principles to perform acts of service, promote education and value for culture, and engage in community-outreach endeavors.
• Contributors
• Maria Hamilton Abegunde is a Cave Canem, Sacatar, and Ragdale fellow. She is the founding director of The Graduate Mentoring Center and a visiting faculty member in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. Exce
• Rowland Abiodun is John C. Newton Professor of Art, the History of Art, and Black Studies at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author of Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (2014), What Follows Six Is More than
• Oliver Lee Jackson , a retired Professor of Art at State University of California, Sacramento, is an expressionistic visual artist whose oil work on canvas, sculptures carved in marble, or metals processed in printmaking the results are grounded in fi
• Dr. Arturo Lindsay is an artist/scholar/educator who researches African spiritual and aesthetic retentions, rediscoveries and re-inventions in America. His research findings are manifested in works of art, scholarly essays and lectures. A native of Co
• Michael McMillan is a London based writer, dramatist, artist/curator and academic. His plays and performance pieces have been produced by the Royal Court Theatre, Channel 4, BBC Radio 4 Drama, across the UK and internationally.
• His curatorial work includes the The West Indian Front Room installation-based exhibition, which was at the Geffrye in 2005-06 with over 35,000 visitors. Subsequent iterations of The Front Room have been in The Netherlands (2007-08), Curacao (2008), J
• Theophus "Thee" Smith is an emeritus faculty in the field of religious studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He now serves as an Episcopal priest at the Cathedral of St. Philip in the Diocese of Atlanta. His 1994 book, Conjuring Culture: Bibl
• Greg Tate is a writer, musician and cultural provocateur. He was a Staff Writer at The Village Voice from 1987 to 2004. His books include Flyboy in The Buttermilk, Flyboy 2: The Greg Tate Reader, Midnight Lightning:Jimi Hendrix and The Black Experienc
• Clyde Taylor is Professor Emeritus of New York University, following an academic specialty in Interdisciplinary Studies and whose writings and cultural activism might be defined as cultural history. His major book publication is The Mask of Art. He wr
• Dr. Marta Moreno Vega is recognized globally for her contributions as a respected scholar, producer, activist, educator, author, professor, and Yoruba priestess. Dr. Moreno Vega, is the second director of El Museo del Barrio, the cofounder of the Glob