This page is referenced by:

• 1 2024-07-23T13:49:31-07:00 A Portrait of God by Quincy Bowie Junior 4 Questions of Duality and Legacy plain 2024-10-03T14:40:00-07:00

  This project began with questions of duality and legacy. I wondered how African Americans reconciled with the many contradictions of our heritage. We acknowledge that Christianity is a result of colonialism and our colonization, yet in many ways, the Christianity we practice now is not the Christianity that was forced upon us. I also considered how indigenous African beliefs manifest in religion. Theoretically, the piece is rooted in the concepts of Afrofutrism and Afropessimism. They informed my approach to the art of the video, and originally I was interested in creating something that explicitly detailed the relationship between these two schools of thought.  However, as I continued the work and looked to insert ethnographic elements, I felt compelled to explore my relationship with, and memories of, religion. What resulted is deeply personal, and draws on an aspect of the African American experience to explore contradiction and dichotomy. In our songs, we sing joyfully and soulfully. We also cry heartily and sometimes curse the world and God in lamentation. I hope this video provides a nuanced picture of African American religion and life in the South, and illuminates the rich intellectual tradition born from this experience.