MIDDLE PASSAGE WITH ADAM AND EVE ROOTS

Middle Passage Conversations

BY TOM FICKLIN | APRIL 6, 2008

Provocative. Stimulating. Controversial. Agitating. Perplexing. Challenging. Irritating. Confusing. Frustrating. A scholars’ conference on “black religion in the diaspora” was all those things — and therefore a success.

“The Middle Passage: Conversations on Black Religion In The African Diaspora — An Interdisciplinary Conference at Yale” too place April 3-5. The conference featured eight moderated interdisciplinary panels of over 40 scholars who explored the ways in which they understand black religiosity in their work. Speakers included: Cornell West, Princeton Univ.; M. Shawn Copeland, Boston College; Dwight N. Hopkins, Univ. of Chicago Divinity Sch.; Renita Weems, preacher; and Faith Ringgold, painter, writer, sculptor and performance artist. They and the conference organizers deserve a thunderous round of applause for breathing life into the word education.



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