Art as Sanctuary Conjuring an Africana Aesthetic - Religious Cultures of African and African Diaspora People

"In Art as Sanctuary, Michael D. Harris considers literal and metaphorical uses of sanctuary in the Black experience and African diaspora art, including locales of spiritual expression, self-renewal, and cultural celebration. Harris pushes the boundaries of thinking about Africana art history and aesthetics, offering an alternative to the Duboisian philosophy of double consciousness, which he believes is no longer fully adequate for evaluating and analyzing African American visual culture or music. His new model explores cultural elements and signifiers embedded consciously or unconsciously in African diaspora art. Within work by diasporic artists, we find insider cultural references which are meaningful to audiences authenticated by membership inside those protected spaces. In that way he reveals the richness of black interiority. While acknowledging the presence of the white observer's gaze, Harris wishes to relieve the black interior