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Dean Yolanda Pierce
Upcoming Events at VDS
Erotic Defiance: Womanism, Freedom, and Resistance Book Talk and Conversation with Courtney Bryant
Wednesday, April 3, 2024, Vanderbilt Divinity School, The Space 5:00 pm
Join us for a book talk and conversation with Dr. Courtney Bryant, assistant professor of religious studies at Manhattan College and author of Erotic Defiance: Womanism, Freedom, and Resistance. In this newly published work, Bryant explores the ethical and theological dimensions of Black womanhood by connecting Audre Lorde’s conceptualization of the erotic with womanist ethicist Katie Cannon’s notion of defiance. Through this creative analysis, Bryant emphasizes the necessary, material dimensions of liberation and self-actualization for Black women in a world hell-bent on their erasure and demonization. This book talk will include a conversation and wider q+a led by Ristina Gooden, PhD student in Homiletics and Liturgics, with a light reception following.
This event is a collaboration by the Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality and the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on Black Church Studies, with additional support from the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies.
The Art of Living on Death Row
Vanderbilt Divinity School is hosting the art of men sentenced to death in our federal system in order to bring to light their voices and their perspectives. Regardless of where one falls on the issue, it is important that we listen to those who are condemned in our name.
Thursday, April 4th 6-8:00 pm at the VDS Art Gallery (G-06) and "The Space" (G-29).
Please come to the opening of this show, which will introduce you to the experiences of these men who continue to try to make meaning and significance of their lives under the most difficult of circumstances, using the power of art to speak the unspeakable.
The artists being featured are Rejon Taylor, Edgar Garcia, and Yuri Kadamov.
At the launch, Executive Director of Tennesseans against the Death Penalty, Stacey Rector, will speak, as well as Kelley Henry, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Middle District of Tennessee, and Toitti Simons, a family friend of artist Rejon Taylor. There will be time to view the art and chat with our speakers over a reception.
The art will remain up and available for viewing for the rest of the school year and into the summer.