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Art and Literation as Intervention

Submitted to Program Units
1: Arts, Literature, and Religion Unit

M. Cooper Harriss, Indiana University, Bloomington, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

Work in the study of Arts, Literature, and Religion has tended most often to read and reflect on cultural expression through ideas, themes, and texts deemed religious, theological, spiritual, secular, philosophical, and ethical (to name a few). What would it mean to reverse this course, effectively understanding expressive texts, artifacts, repertoire, and phenomena to intervene actively in (rather than to respond to) discourses understood to be religious, theological, secular, philosophical, or ethical? What difference does this reversal of readings make? What aspects, functions, and significances of artistic expression, broadly construed, illuminate the condition or experience of being human, of living and working in community? Is art uniquely capable of doing this? How and why does this matter—both generally and within the particularities that generate identity and other social and political aspects of human experience? These papers take up this series of questions, turning their attention to a diverse array of interventions—ranging from neuroaesthetics, liturgical sign language, and theopoetical practice to expressions of indigeneity and combatting the dehumanization of incarceration—situated in a variety of religious contexts.

Papers

  • Jessica Wong, Azusa Pacific University

    Art of Racial Reconciliation: The Pneumatological Potential of Aesthetic Encounter in Reimagining Race, Reshaping the Brain, and Realizing the Kingdom

    Abstract

    Art has long been utilized by people of color to express and even bring healing to the wounds inflicted by racism. But what of art as a tool of reconciliation? What role might aesthetic experiences, including the act of creating, play in challenging the dominant racial imaginary that shapes how we see the world? And how might these encounters be understood pneumatologically? Art can rewire our brains, reshaping the weight or meaning given to people, places, and things. It can prime pathways for new meaning making. Drawing upon research in neuroaesthetics, this paper considers more than the potential of art to address the negative effects of racial trauma, but, pushing beyond current literature, it entertains the possibility of art’s intervention into how prejudicial ways of thinking shape the brain. Delightfully improvisational and often messy, meaningful aesthetic experiences, like the Spirit, have a way of moving us beyond ourselves, beyond our expectations and comfortable boundaries, and toward significant encounter that can then give rise to something new – to a new narrative, to a new conception of family, to a new way of seeing that moves us beyond our given racial imaginary.

  • Grant Showalter-Swanson, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

    Theopoetics and Praxis: Imagination and Poetic Expression as God-Talk

    Abstract

    Contemporary conversations around theopoetics tend to define it as a critical method for theologizing and engaging God-talk that is attentive to the limitations of language. Given the mysterious and creative nature of the divine, creative arts generally, and poetry specifically, provide an imaginative framework to engage the divine. I argue that the field of theopoetics must be more attentive to the dynamic of praxis through the practice of art and poetry creation amidst analysis and theological God talk, lest theopoetics confine artistic expression and imaginative creation to professionalism and expertise. This presentation challenges current understandings of theopoetics by centering praxis, names theologians and theorists who craft poetry amidst their theoretical work, and invites participants to a time of imaginative reflection and artistic creation.

    How might God meet you

    here? In your own creative

    wisdom and response?

  • Paloma Sanchez, Harvard Divinity School

    The sacred presences in Taoltsin to nemilis a series created by Mixteyot Vázquez

    Abstract

    On the evening of the 28th of September of 2023, Mixteyot Vázquez inagurated his first solo exhibition with the painting series Taoltsin to Nemilis. Mixteyot Vázquez is a Maseual artist from San Miguel Tzinacapan, an indigenous community in central Mexico. His exhibition featured six oleo paintings, five of them depicting scenes from the liturgical dance Danza de los Tejoneros. The last painting is a portrait of the sculpture of Tzinacapan’s patron saint, St. Michael Archangel.

    In this paper, I examine Taoltsin to nemilis as an actor that allows us to understand how Mesoamerican Religious traditions and Catholicism are intertwined in a contemporary indigenous community. Furthermore, I argue that the paintings encapsulate divine presences from the two religious’ worldviews. Imbued by these divine presences, the paintings were welcomed in the main religious feast of Tzinacapan, as an offering to maintain the balance of the universe and guarantee human and non-human life.  

  • Kimberly Veney,

    Black American Sign Language As Liturgy

    Abstract

    Black American Sign Language (BASL) is an embodied language expressing language, emotion, culture, and spirituality. It is often seen as a poetic expression and invoking a dancer's narration. Black Church Liturgy, often expressed in song, word, and dance, disproportionately recognizes BASL as an equal function. This paper invites the Black Deaf Community, Black interpreters, faith leaders, and interested Hearing community members to embrace Black ASL as a worship praxis.

     

  • Peter Dickson, New Hampshire Public Defenders

    How Art Resists: Creative Expressions of Incarcerated Artists at Maximum-Security Prison for Women

    Abstract

    This paper reflects on an art class at a women's maximum-security prison. Here, art stands as a defiant counterpoint to the system's dehumanization. Prisons reduce individuals to numbers and enforce singular narratives. Philosopher Merleau-Ponty argues that our bodies are central to how we experience the world, but prisons, a site of bodily confinement, disrupt this. Art becomes a "second layer of flesh," offering two key insights: 1) Reclaiming Subjectivity: incarcerated artists express their inner selves through art, defying the prison's narrative. Paintings become a window into their complexities and experiences. 2) Social Connection: The act of creation fosters connection. It's not just about the physical act of creating, but the web of experiences and relationships woven into the art. This reminded the incarcerated artists that they were part of a larger social fabric, not isolated units. While art doesn't offer simple solutions, it challenges the prison's one-dimensional view. Art pushes us to re-imagine systems that value the whole person.

Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Play Audio from Laptop Computer
Podium microphone

Sabbath Observance

Saturday (all day)
Sunday morning

Comments

Please consider for... 1. Practices of art engagement in theological writing 2. Art and literature as human experience 3. Art and literature as intervention 4. The embodied artist; the artist as text | This paper is offered for Violence, nonviolence, and the margin and The embodied artist; the artist as text. I would also like to display the art of the students on a project during the talk.

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

2 Hours
Schedule Info

Tuesday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Tags

#theopoetics
theopoetics
Theopoetics; Theopoetics in color; Decolonial Pedagogy; Theological Embodiment; Marginal voices; Subversive Publishing; Theopoetic Publishing Practice
#Rubem Alves
#Anzaldúa
Gloria Anzaldua
#poetry
#indigenous knowledge #catholicism
#affect #embodiment #Africana #decolonization #African Diaspora #race #gender #linguistics

Session Identifier

A26-113