2016/02/15 by Kymberly N. Pinder · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Race, History, and American Society #Art, Politics, and Modernism #Public Spaces through Art
paper · doi:10.5406/illinois/9780252039928.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2016/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Innovative and lavishly illustrated, this book offers an indispensable contribution to conversations about black art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago. It escorts readers on an eye-opening odyssey to the murals, stained glass, and sculptures dotting the city's black churches and neighborhoods. Moving from Chicago's oldest black Christ figure to contemporary religious street art, the book explores ideas like blackness in public, art for black communities, and the relationship of Afrocentric art to Black Liberation Theology. It also focuses attention on art excluded from scholarship due to racial or religious particularity. Throughout, the book reflects on the myriad ways private black identities assert public and political goals through imagery. The book includes maps and tour itineraries that allow readers to make conceptual, historical, and geographical connections among the works.