How do we make sense of the seemingly clear divisions between the institutional and the popular, the collective and the person, the physical and the spiritual, the secular and the sacred?
How did trance-possession, an act traditionally praised for its practical utility and transcendent powers across sub-Saharan Africa, come to epitomize heresy?
Like a banner at a rally, or a poster advocating for revolution, the art created by the Yoruba people is meant to have life and to be used, whether that function is practical, didactic, ritual, or all of the above.
"When something is named, it’s perceived as a bounded entity placed within a stream of time, rather than a process." So how can language apprehend concepts of the infinite?
"In both of my pink bibles, I hunted for knowledge, for evidence, for legitimacy. Would I have reached for that baby pink illustrated children’s bible if it had been a brown book of coarse pages?"
"What do you think of when you think of Muslims? Chances are you are not picturing the largest demographic of American-born Muslims in the United States: Black American Muslims." Photographs of a mosque in Elizabeth, New Jersey.