Art As Sanctuary

Michael D. Harris (1948-2022) was an artist, curator, and scholar and the author of Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation. Dianne M. Stewart is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Religion and African American Studies at Emory University. Theophus H. Smith is Emeritus Associate Professor of Religion at Emory University. Richard J. Powell is John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art & Art History at Duke University and editor of Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, also published by Duke University Press.

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

"In Art as Sanctuary, Michael D. Harris revisits a selection of significant works by African American artists and reframes them in ways that expand their meaning through new, globally focused contextualizations. In highlighting the importance of art as both shelter and balm, he offers us imaginative refuge in today's world."-Kellie Jones, author of South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s