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Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility
WINNER OF THE JUDY TSOU CRITICAL RACE STUDIES AWARD!
In this profoundly innovative book, Ashon T. Crawley engages a wide range of critical paradigms from black studies, queer theory, and sound studies to theology, continental philosophy, and performance studies to theorize the ways in which alternative or “otherwise” modes of existence can serve as disruptions against the marginalization of and violence against minoritarian lifeworlds and possibilities for flourishing.
Examining the whooping, shouting, noise-making, and speaking in tongues of Black Pentecostalism―a multi-racial, multi-class, multi-national Christian sect with one strand of its modern genesis in 1906 Los Angeles― Blackpentecostal Breath reveals how these aesthetic practices allow for the emergence of alternative modes of social organization. As Crawley deftly reveals, these choreographic, sonic, and visual practices and the sensual experiences they create are not only important for imagining what Crawley identifies as “otherwise worlds of possibility,” they also yield a general hermeneutics, a methodology for reading culture in an era when such expressions are increasingly under siege.
In this profoundly innovative book, Ashon T. Crawley engages a wide range of critical paradigms from black studies, queer theory, and sound studies to theology, continental philosophy, and performance studies to theorize the ways in which alternative or “otherwise” modes of existence can serve as disruptions against the marginalization of and violence against minoritarian lifeworlds and possibilities for flourishing.
Examining the whooping, shouting, noise-making, and speaking in tongues of Black Pentecostalism―a multi-racial, multi-class, multi-national Christian sect with one strand of its modern genesis in 1906 Los Angeles― Blackpentecostal Breath reveals how these aesthetic practices allow for the emergence of alternative modes of social organization. As Crawley deftly reveals, these choreographic, sonic, and visual practices and the sensual experiences they create are not only important for imagining what Crawley identifies as “otherwise worlds of possibility,” they also yield a general hermeneutics, a methodology for reading culture in an era when such expressions are increasingly under siege.
320 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 20, 2020
A book that, while very specific in its focus on Blackpentecostalism and the aesthetics of black studies, has reshaped the way I look at the world just by nature of redefining what the idea of possibility or "otherwise" can actually be.
September 7, 2024
Unfortunately I think I got more out of The Lonely Letters- also, this one was more technical and academic, so it was a more laborious read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews