Prof Robert Beckford: Is God a White Racist? ‘Woking’ Gospel Music in Brita…

Wed, October 16, 2019 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

How might we meaningfully reflect on the church’s complicity with racial terror in the Caribbean? And what is the role of British gospel music in articulating the memory of slavery, its continued impact and its overcoming? Entangling ideas from theodicy (the problem of evil), pentecostal epistemes (prayer, singing) and Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake: On Blackness and Being” (creative and critical cultural production) this practice-based presentation explores the sources for a new urban ’social gospel music’ genre.

Followed by a wine reception.

Professor Robert Beckford is Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora at Canterbury Christ Church University. Professor Beckford researches in written, visual and audio texts and has won numerous awards, including two international awards, a BAFTA, and a Jamaica National Diaspora Award. He is the author of six books, and has presented over twenty television documentaries on commercial television stations, including Channel 4, BBC 2, BBC4 and Discovery USA.

This lecture is part of the History Research Seminar Series at Manchester Metropolitan University.

There will be a wine reception after the lecture.

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