Harvard University | Friday, April 3, 2015 CGIS South Building - Tsai Auditorium | 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA
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Image: “Instantaneous Cowry Shell” by Duwayne Washington Harvard University | Friday, April 3, 2015 CGIS South Building - Tsai Auditorium | 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA Sponsored by: Hutchins Center for African and African American Research Harvard Center for African Studies Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School W.E.B. DuBois Graduate Society Department of African and African American Studies The Orisa Community Development Corporation WGBH Boston Ase Ire M SUGH U ZA VAN BIENVENIDOS E KAABO AKWABAA BYENVENI MERHBE BEM VINDOS WELCOME Welcome to the third conference of the practiced class of religions. Taken alone, African and Diasporic Religious Studies practitioners of African and African Diasporic Association! ADRSA was conceived during a religions comprise the 8th largest religious grouping forum of scholars and scholar-practitioners of in the world, with approximately 100 million African and Diasporic religions held at the Center practitioners, and the number continues to grow. for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Despite their noted absence from Religious Studies Divinity School in October 2011 and the idea was in the past, more and more, the knowledge solidified during the highly successful Sacred embedded in the rich traditions of Africa and the Healing and Wholeness in Africa and the Americas Americas is coming to the fore. The ADRSA is symposium held at Harvard in April 2012. Those proud to be a part of that development. present at the forum and the symposium agreed that, as with the other fields with which many of us African religions have always been dynamic and are affiliated, the expansion of the discipline would cosmopolitan, transcending spatial boundaries to be aided by the formation of an blend and reform themselves in association that allows conjunction with neighboring researchers to come together to traditions. Once introduced into forge relationships, share their the Americas, the pluralistic work, and contribute to the nature of these traditions lent to growing body of scholarship on the development of unique these rich traditions. We are African Diasporic religions that proud to be the first US-based have grown, moved, and changed association dedicated exclusively over time. The divination, ritual, to the study of African and song, dance, incantation, craft, Diasporic Religions and we look festival, spirit possession, dreams, forward to continuing to build our herbalism, acquisition of sacred network throughout the country knowledge and many other and the world. Our first official aspects of these traditions have conference as an organization, traversed the African continent Divine Space and Sacred Territories, held in 2013 and the world to become was a great success, as was our second conference formidable forces in the realm of world religions. Love Supreme: Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in Practitioners of the traditions represented here African and Diasporic Religions held last year. We today exercise active agency and engage with the are delighted to welcome you to our third world on every level, using every one of their senses conference today. and sensibilities. They mend what is broken, balance what is askew and maintain equilibrium Although there has been definite improvement, until the time comes to mend and rebalance again. Indigenous Religions of all varieties are still sorely It is this intricate, fascinating and empowering underrepresented in the academic realms of process and the ways in which it is manifest in Religious and Theological Studies. As a scholar- through the creation of spiritual soundscapes that practitioner of such a tradition, I am eager to see we look forward to exploring today. We pray that that change. As of 2005, there were at least 400 the connections we make and the conversations we million people practicing Indigenous Religions begin will endure long after the conference has worldwide, making them the 5th most commonly ended. With best wishes and sincere gratitude, Funlayo E. Wood Founding Director, African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association Doctoral Candidate, Department of African & African American Studies, Harvard University African and Diasporic Spiritual Soundscapes | ADRSA 2015 | Page 1 FEATURED ARTIST | DUWAYNE WASHINGTON Duwayne Washington originally repertoire in college. Upon staying hails from East Orange, NJ but with a friend around 1997, he was now resides in beautiful introduced to painting. His friend Tallahassee, Florida with his wife had oil paints, q-tips, and ceramic and two children. As a child, he tiles and they would stay up all night drew for energy release but was painting. From that moment on He usually too busy playing outside was turned on to the visual arts to be focused on art aside from thanks to his friend’s generosity. He some drawings on small pieces of bought three brushes and oil paint paper here and there. Music was and began to paint on found objects Washington’s first art form and and has been painting, drawing, at age 11, he joined his middle sculpting and creating digital art ever school band playing clarinet and since. oboe. He was truly passionate about the instruments and To view and purchase Duwayne’s played through high school, work, visit http://duwayne- adding the drums to his musical washington.artistwebsites.com In Duwaye’s own words: When I do artwork, I prefer to have some Jazz on I get in the zone. Creativity is an amazing divine gift from The Creator. I am thankful every day to have the focus and passion to be creative. I have a lot say in my work and I am trying to achieve a balance between content and transcendental clairvoyance. I am listening to my intuition to hear what the artistic accidents reveal to my consciousness and follow them. Lately I've been working on my art technique while attending Tallahassee Community College. I use digital art as a tool in some of my artwork, t-shirts, etc. I put it back in the artistic toolbox when I'm done. I am building my art foundations in hands-on painting, drawing, and sculpture and I love the whole process of planning, mixing, and application of creative materials. I enjoy how time and space stops while engaged in the "Art Zone." Artists are, in my opinion, psychics whose channel is the paintbrush and canvas. I want to open myself up to the voice leading me to the inspiration and listen. Portrait at the Masquerade The Lips of Oshun African Fertility Sculpture (Watercolor and Acrylic on paper) (Digital Painting) (Digital Painting) African and Diasporic Spiritual Soundscapes | ADRSA 2015 | Page 2 African and Diasporic Spiritual Soundscapes Third Conference of the African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association Harvard University | Friday, April 3, 2015 8:00 am – 8:50 am Breakfast & Networking 9:00 – 9:30 am Opening of the Day Funlayo E. Wood Doctoral Candidate, African and African American Studies & Religion, Harvard University | Founding Director, ADRSA Libation Awo Oluwole Ifakunle Adetutu Alagbede, Chief Priest, Ile Omo Ope, New York, NY Welcome Francis X. Clooney, S. J., Director, Center for the Study of World Religions 9:30 – 10:00 am Opening Plenary| Sonic Spirituality: Iterations of Divine Remembrance from Ile Ife 'Til Infinity Kokhavah Zauditu-Selassie, MFA, DA, Professor of English, Coppin State University Panel Preludes by Lisa Òṣunlétí Beckley, Professor of Music and Humanities, Tallahassee Community College | Asst. Director, ADRSA 10:00 – 11:00 am Panel 1 | Hallowed Howls, Harmonies, and Sacred Sounds Chair: Laura S. Grillo, PhD, Professor of History of Religions, Pacifica Graduate Institute Joseph S. Gbenda, PhD (Benue State University) Animal Sounds, Appearances and Movements as Religious Subjects in Tiv Indigenous Religion Jesse Miller (Florida State University) Regeneration, Reproduction, and Societal Harmony in Case Studies of African Death Ritual Through Sound M. Ifaboyede Ajisebo Ogunninhun Abimbola (Ifa Heritage Institute) Ifa and Orisa Chants: Sacred Sounds of Yoruba Religion 11:00 – 12:30 pm Panel 2 | Rhythmic Resonances and the Politics of Performance Chair: N. Fadeke Castor, PhD, Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies, Texas A&M University Didier Michel Sylvain (Columbia University) “The Loop Takes You Somewhere…”: Sonic Vibration and Transcendence in “Afro-Electronica” Jason Baumann Montilla (CUNY Graduate Center) “Congo de Guinea Soy, Buenas Noches Criollo:” Diaspora, Subjectivity and the Songs of Espiritismo African and Diasporic Spiritual Soundscapes | ADRSA 2015 | Page 3 Alison McLetchie, PhD (Claflin University) Hosanna: Religious Rhythms and Chants in Calypso Sheriden M. Booker, PhD (WURArts) Performative Așeșe: Orișa-Inspired Folklore and Popular Music as Extensions of Sacred Spiritual Soundscapes 12:30 – 1:15 pm Lunch break Nearby quick eats: Panera, Al’s Sub Shop, the Greenhouse Café, Darwin’s, Qdoba, B. Good 1:30 pm Keynote Address| Awise Wande Abimbola Professor Emeritus, African Languages and Literatures, Obafemi Awolowo University Awise Awo ni Agbaye (Spokesperson for Ifa throughout the World) *Raffle Drawing Immediately Following Keynote * 2:15 – 2:30 African and Diasporic Religions Film Festival Trailers The Summer of Gods Search for the Everlasting Coconut Tree Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo 2:30 – 3:45 pm Panel 3 | Clamorous Confrontations and Collaborations Chair: Stephanie Y. Mitchem, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina Youssef Carter (University of California, Berkeley) “Am Na Ndam: Communicating Spiritual