Unmaking Race, Remaking Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom

Unmaking Race,Remaking Soul

Unmaking Race, Remaking Soul Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom Edited by Christa Davis Acampora and Angela L. Cotten State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press, Albany© 2007 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Christine Hamel Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Unmaking race, remaking soul : transformative aesthetics and the practice of freedom / edited by Christa Davis Acampora, Angela L. Cotten. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: Joy A. James, “‘tragedy fatigue’ and ‘aesthetic agency,’” Christa Davis Acampora, “on making and remaking: an introduction” — Resisting imagination — Ritch Calvin, “writing the xicanista : Ana Castillo and the articulation of chicana feminist aesthetics” — Kelly Oliver, “everyday revolutions, shifting power, and feminine genius in Julia Alvarez’s fiction” — Christa Davis Acampora, “authorizing desire : erotic poetics and the aesthesis of freedom in Morrison and Shange “ — Body agonistes — Martha Mockus, “meshell ndegéocello : musical articulations of Black feminism” — Kimberly Lamm, “portraits of the past, imagined now : reading the work of Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems” — Eduardo Mendieta, “the coloniality of embodiment : Coco Fusco’s postcolonial genealogies and semiotic agonistics” — Changing the subject — Ruth Porritt, “pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell : forming a wise, generous, and beautiful ‘I am’” — Phoebe Farris, “the syncretism of Native American, Latin American, and African American — Women’s art : visual expressions of feminism, the environment, spirituality, and identity” — Nandita Gupta, “dalit women’s literature : a sense of the struggle” — Home is where the art is : shaping space and place — Ailsa I. Smith, “the role of ‘place’ in New Zealand Maori songs of lament” — Katherine Wilson, “theatre near us : librarians, culture, and space in the Harlem Renaissance” — Jaye T. Darby, “into the sacred circle, out of the melting pot : re/locations and homecomings in native women’s theater”. ISBN 978-0-7914-7161-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Aesthetics. I. Acampora, Christa Davis, 1967– II. Cotten, Angela L., 1968– BH39.U56 2007 111'.85—dc22 2006032684 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Christa’s brave and creative mother, Frances, and Angela’s wise and generous mother, Mary ...