8th Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture

Join panelists and conference attendees for two Juneteenth and African-American religious expressions sessions. Participants will also have an opportunity to explore the Acts of Faith exhibition and experience a performance from the Freetown Village Singers.

Schedule:

2 – 3 p.m.: Juneteenth, Black Religion, and the Ambiguities of Freedom Lecture: During this keynote presentation, hear from Dr. Keri Day on the fraught relationship between religion and freedom, especially black freedom. Her recent work has foregrounded the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 and the complex questions that emerge when talking about black freedom. She suggests that that Azusa’s non-statist, apocalyptic account of black freedom troubles and complicates the assumption that directing black energies and political agency towards nation-state building primarily secures the ends of black freedom. Dr. Day will highlight these complex questions that emerge when discussing Black freedom, from political agency to securing liberation and flourishing.

3 – 4 p.m.: Freetown Village Singers Performance: Listen to the interactive collection of traditional folk songs, using a mix of a cappella singing and storytelling by the Freetown Village Singers.

4 – 5 p.m.: Religion, Material Culture, and Museums: This interactive forum session seeks to address how different religions are portrayed, and the nature of religious objects when they are also artifacts—or seemingly mundane objects that were religious for a different culture. How does a material object convey a culture’s values, both past and present? What ethical issues are at play in this unique educational setting?

Included with price of museum admission.

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