Up you mighty people, you can what you will! Elma Lewis And Her School of Fine Arts

Elma Lewis, founder of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, National Center of Afro-American Artists, and Museum of the National Center of Artists, was the subject of this historical case study. Focused attention was directed at Lewis’ philosophy, her School of Fine Arts, and her use of arts education as a tool for achieving racial pride and equity for mid-century Black Bostonians. Objectives of this study included recording Lewis’ philosophy and its relationship to Garveyism as well as cataloguing the means by which Lewis’ ideals advanced African Americans in their pursuit of racial pride and equity. Data for the study was assembled from primary and secondary sources. Primary source materials preserved in the archives of Elma Lewis, her School of Fine Arts (ELSFA), the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA), and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (MNCAAA) were mined for relevant data as were third party interviews and the NCAAA website. Interviews of former ELSFA faculty, students, parents, and community members conducted by this researcher breathed renewed life into dormant archival materials while simultaneously triangulating all data. Findings identify Lewis’ philosophy of arts education as cultural emancipation (AECE) as an artistic relative of Garveyism and related yet distinct from music education philosophies centering aesthetic education and participatory action. Recommendations for future research identify topics within music/arts education’s burgeoning domain of African American arts education

A Historical Survey of Pancaratra Religion.

The subject has been divided into five chapters. In the Introduction we have indicated three different phases in the evolution of Pancaratra Philosophy, corresponding to an identical number of stages in the historic career of Pancaratra. In the second chapter Krsna-Vasudeva has been shown to be a real historical figure, and not a vegetation deity nor a solar one. Then, the fortunes of Bhagavatisim, in the light of literary and epigraphic records, have been traced. Incidentally, a bird's-eye view of the philosophy of the four-principal Sampradayas, into wich Bhagavatism at a later stage split up, viz:, Sri-Sampradaya, Sanakadi-Sampradaya, Brahma-Sampradaya, and Rudra-Sampradaya, has been taken to explain the continuity of theistic currents in India. Next we have analysed the various ingredients of Visnu, the Vedic God, leading to his subsequent elevation to the rank of a supreme spirit. The cult of Narayana has been attended to by a similar analytical study, justifying his claim to the position of a cosmic deity. The third chapter contains the philosophy of the semi-Brahmaised Bhagavatas from the Narayaniya episode. As we have no systematic religious literature for the first period, we have entirely to rely for it upon certain stray materials pieced together by Dr. Bhandarkar, Professor Garbe, and Dr. Grierson. In the fourth chapter, an attempt has been made to portray the philosophy of the Pancaratras from their traditional text-books, e.g., the Samhitas. In our treatment of philosophy during the successive stages, we have not allowed ourselves to be disturbed by the question of indebtedness of Pancaratra to pantheism of the Midland. The subject, on account of its immense importance, has received special attention in the concluding chapter on the philosophy of the Upanisads

Poetic Images, Presence, and the Theater of Kenotic Rituals

This book explores the interrelation of contemporary French theatre and poetry. Using the pictorial turn in the various branches of art and science, its observable features, and the theoretical framework of the conceptual metaphor, this study seeks to gather together the divergent manners in which French poetry and theatre address this turn. Poetry in space and theatricality of poetry are studied alongside theatre, especially to the performative aspect of the originally theological concept of ""kenosis"". In doing so the author attempts to make use of the theological concept of kenosis, of central importance in Novarina’s oeuvre, for theatrical and dramatological purposes. Within poetic rituals, kenotic rituals are also examined in the book in a few theatrical practices – János Pilinszky and Robert Wilson, Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba – facilitating a better understanding of Novarina’s works. Accompanied by new English translations in the appendices, this is the first English language monograph related to the French essayist, dramaturg and director Valère Novarina’s theatre, and will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and literature studies

Frustrated Modernity: Kerewo Histories and Historical Consciousness, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea

This thesis takes Kerewo historical consciousness as the frame for an analysis of the ways in which reflections on the past are fundamentally informed by orientations towards the future. In particular, I draw on various representations of the historical event of the killing of missionary James Chalmers in 1901, and its consequences, to explore local conceptions of modernity as a moral state withheld from Kerewo in the absence of a reconciliation with their past. This particular historical episode occupies a central place in contemporary Kerewo understandings of their perceived marginality within the post-Independence state of Papua New Guinea, and more widely in the world system. This marginality is manifest in Kerewo daily experience as a lack of services and infrastructure, despite the presence in the area of a multi-billion dollar resource extraction enterprise. The roots of this perceived lack of ‘modernity’ are sought in the colonial past, and articulated in moral terms through historical narratives. The colonial era emerges from these narratives as the period in which Kerewo were exposed to modernity in its ideological and material forms. Yet, the promises and expectation of an amelioration of life conditions engendered by several colonial discourses never materialised, leaving contemporary Kerewo people with a sense of frustrated modernity. It is the conflation of the colonial era with the idea of modernity that informs Kerewo historical consciousness, and thus it is by ritually addressing the colonial past that Kerewo people seek to transform the ‘frustrated modernity’ of the present into a better future. What emerges from the analysis of the historical and ethnographic material that constitutes the core of this dissertation is that historical consciousness consists fundamentally of a social process – which emerges from the social labour of history- making – to apprehend present conditions through reflection on the past informed by competing orientations toward the future

Insights into the music patterns of St Basil liturgy according to the Coptic rite

The exact roots of Coptic music and its creation remain unknown, with speculations suggesting potential Pharaonic, Jewish and Greek roots. This thesis focuses on the musical features of both the priest’s chants and the congregational responses in the St Basil liturgy according to the Coptic rite, in an attempt to discern its patterns and roots since it seems impossible to identify its composers and origin. The practice-based empirical methods used were audio and video recording of the liturgy, notating its music using the Arabic music rules, comparing melodies of Greek responses practised in the Byzantine and Coptic traditions and attempting to reproduce the Coptic melodies using Pharaonic nay replicas. The current literature shows no description of musical features and scales of St Basil liturgy, as stated decades ago by H Hickmann, being transmitted via the oral tradition. Audio analysis of some of the liturgical responses revealed significant scale discrepancies between three renowned contemporary musicians. Also, having compared four sets of notations by eminent Coptic musicians, there were significant differences in the style of notation and the dominating scales. These results raised doubt about the accuracy of the conventional Arabic music analyses in describing the Coptic music, since scale recognition is based only on the tetrachord. Despite that, my suggestion of the seven musical sections of the liturgy has been confirmed. Also, comparing the music of thirteen Greek responses shared between the Byzantine and Coptic traditions, showed similarities only between two; the rest of the responses were different. Furthermore, attempts to reproduce the St Basil melodies using Pharaonic nay (flute) replicas showed limited ability of the oldest long nays compared to the more recent short ones. Thus, despite being the first empirical study of the music features of St Basil liturgy according to the Coptic rite, this thesis successfully describes unique patterns and puts forward suggestions, with some speculations, regarding the roots of such ancient music, which requires further analysis