Dr. Joy Bostic will lead a workshop entitled The Lemonade Class: Womanist Pedagogy and Black Popular Cultures at the Trailblazers 2018: Beyond the Temple Door There is no Promised Land at Union Theological Seminary in New York City on Saturday, February 24.
The Lemonade Class: Womanist Pedagogy and Black Popular Cultures
Rev. Dr. Joy R. Bostic
Delores S. Williams asserts that when we need new theological language to challenge and deconstruct rigid and oppressive structures we must look to the poets and artists. In this workshop, we will explore a womanist pedagogical approach that is based on Williams’ work and uses Black women’s popular cultures as sources. With a focus on Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, we will discuss how Black women’s artistic works and performances may contain Black female cultural codes that help us to understand how artists address the intersectional dimensions of Black female experience; create spaces for resistance to oppressive structures and for expressions of a productive quality of life; and reflect Black women’s theological practices and worldviews. Out of this discussion, we will begin to think about how we might use this pedagogical approach to identify or construct emancipatory practices with women and girls in our local communities.