Student Projects Now on Display
Two Active Learning student projects for Professor J. Lorand Matory's Afro-Atlantic Religions class are now on display. "The Healer" was produced by Martha Gillette, MDiv at the Episcopal Divinity School, and Josh Levy, MTS at Harvard Divinity School. The exhibit seeks to address issues of spiritual healing in the Haitian Vodun tradition through the students' interaction with a local Haitian artist. As the students interviewed him, they were also being interviewed; Martha was finally judged a suitable candidate to "live with" the piece he was to produce specifically for her.
The piece is called "The Healer," and calls on Martha's personal loas (spirits) to protect her and her family. The fee paid for the "The Healer" will be used as down payment for a school in Haiti. A photograph of the piece, as well as pictures, interviews, and a recipe that represent the project's process, hangs on the first-floor bulletin board. The exhibit will be up until June 7, 2005.
The "Yemayá Miniature Throne" was created by Renita Moore, MTS at Harvard Divinity School, and represents the final saga of a semester-long Active Learning project for Professor J. Lorand Matory's Afro-Atlantic Religions course. The throne is dedicated to the female orisha Yemayá, one of the most prominent deities within the Afro-Cuban religion, Relga de Ocha. Yemayá is the deity of the ocean and represents all things maternal and life-giving. Due to her association with water, she is most often associated with the colors blue and white. The throne, being predominately blue and white, is a miniaturized, simplified version of what a devotee of Yemayá would build to celebrate the orisha's presence in her/his life as well as her role within the larger Ocha pantheon. Throughout the semester Renita engaged in intensive field investigation with a santera (female initiate of Regla de Ocha) who is also an hija (literally, "daughter") of the orisha to whom this throne is dedicated. The throne will be displayed in the Stendahl Lobby on the second floor from May 17 to May 20, 2005.
Posted May 2005