Keohane Distinguished Performance Lecture — "Agnosticostal"

AGNOSTICOSTAL is a performance lecture in which Ashon Crawley practices the breath, the gestures, the spiritual seriousness of Black folks, of Blackpentestalism, of Black social life. “Shouting,” a choreography of praise and worship in the Blackpentecostal tradition, will be immortalized on canvas as Crawley paints with pigment powder, acrylic paint, and ink using hand clapping, foot stomping, a tambourine, and movement of the body to visualize the intensity and fervor of spiritual practices. With a live soundtrack provided by the sounds of the Hammond B-3 organ, played by Charles “Chuddy” Smith, vocals by Ashley Howard and the downbeat by drummer Rodney “Rod” Jones, Crawley will engage a devotional practice of praise and worship live for, and with, an audience.

"We Black folks are a land-based people who must rediscover our relationship to land,” asserts artist, scholar, and 2024-25 Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor @ashoncrawley. 🌱
This year’s Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill professorship centers on the theme of “Arts and the American South” and reconnecting people to place. Across both campuses, Crawley has led art workshops and delivered lectures on Black life, exploring how the built environment and land have been used for the exploitation of Black and Indigenous people—and the Earth itself.