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Full-Text Articles in African American Studies

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton Jan 2021

Painting While Black: Exploring Racial Identity Through Iconography, Blake Morton

CMC Senior Theses

An exploration grounded in the works of visionary artists within the contemporary Post-Black era. Artists such as Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, and Glenn Ligon whose works resonate with the fears, anxieties, and intentions that I wrestled with. I engaged with the iconography and historical background of the contemporary Post-Black era. A dive into the historical, philosophical and artistic implications behind making art about race and racism as a Black artist. Ultimately, through the aid of artists from the Post-Black era, I created a three-part response to the initial question: “Why don’t you make art about race?”


A Christian Understanding Of Aesthetic Agency: A Theological Framework Of Resistance To Cultural Imperialism, Elise Edwards Mar 2013

A Christian Understanding Of Aesthetic Agency: A Theological Framework Of Resistance To Cultural Imperialism, Elise Edwards

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Aesthetic agency refers to conditions, capacities, and states that inform artistic forms of acting and exerting power on social structures. In resistance to the marginalization of women of color, aesthetic agency is exercised through creative acts of culture-making and critique of such practices to challenge domination and representation of the oppressed other. To support this work as a feminist Christian ethicist, I construct a theological framework for aesthetic agency. This paper proposes a theological understanding of transformative aesthetics and then describes the exercise of aesthetic agency for Christian communities by using a television special, Black Girls Rock! as an example.