Online Event

Dr. Elizabeth Pérez discusses the ways that the art of Harmonia Rosales rejects colonial conventions for depicting the West African and Afro-Diasporic deities called orishas. Dr. Pérez argues that Rosales creatively reimagines dominant visual representations of the orishas, some of which derive from Cuban genres of Blackface minstrelsy--for example, the "tragic mulatta" trope invoked in portrayals of Ochún as a mixed-race goddess. Dr. Pérez calls on scholars to interrogate whitewashed images of Black Atlantic divinity and suggests why Rosales' paintings speak so powerfully to young practitioners in particular. Dr. Pérez is Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara.

Free lecture. RSVP and register for Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3Lt34kk