Womanist Work: Black Women Preachers and the Making of Sermonic Space in Literature and Music

With Melanie R. Hill, Rutgers Newark

and

Wallace Best, Princeton

“In order to come through and to make it through, we created a song.” -Nikki Giovanni

In Black Performance Theory, Dr. D. Soyini Madison’s foreword explicates the imperatives and aesthetics of Black expressive culture coupled with the ways in which Blackness is performatively examined in time and space. Womanist Work centers the efficacy of the sermon within African American literature, music, and social-spiritual moments with respect to Black women preachers as cultural figures. In addition to investigating how Black women preachers use their sermons as modes of resistance, Womanist Work foregrounds the Black woman preacher’s emphasis on musicality, expressivity, thematic relevance, and improvisatory phrasing, clarifying the ways that the delivery of the sermon must be understood in terms of both content and context. Womanist Work also acknowledges the prophetic scenarios in African American literature, music, and theology that speak to creating, producing, and discovering sermonic space regarding Black women preachers within the twenty-first century freedom movement.

This is a hybrid event. Attend in person at the School of Architecture, or register for the zoom webinar:

https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EPNrtCFQRsOMJdryUVTQsw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The Fall 2023 Mellon Forum on the Urban Environment is kindly sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and the Princeton University Humanities Council, Program in Latin American Studies, Center for Collaborative History, Departments of Art & Archaeology and English, HMEI, PIIRS, SPIA, and the School of Architecture.

Mellon Forum events are free and open to the public. Boxed lunches are available while supplies last.