An examination of the musical, religious, and political landscape of black New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina, this revised edition looks at how these factors play out in a new millennium of global apartheid. Richard Brent Turner explores the history and contemporary significance of second lines-the group of dancers who follow the first procession of church and club members, brass bands, and grand marshals in black New Orleans's jazz street parades. Here music and religion interplay, and Turner's study reveals how these identities and traditions from Haiti and West and Central Africa are reinterpreted. He also describes how second line participants create their own social space and become proficient in the arts of political disguise, resistance, and performance.

About the Author

Richard Brent Turner is Professor of Religious Studies and African American Studies at the University of Iowa. He is author of Islam in the African-American Experience (IUP, 2003). In the late 1990s, Turner lived in New Orleans while teaching at Xavier University.

Reviews

Turner straddles religion, music, the performance arts, languages, nationalities, and identities skillfully . . . with aplomb, with brio, in a language all his own that sings.

-- Patrick Bellegarde-Smith

A well-written, well-researched, thoughtful, and generative book.

-- George Lipsitz

Turner straddles religion, music, the performance arts, languages, nationalities, and identities skillfully . . . with aplomb, with brio, in a language all his own that sings.

-- Patrick Bellegarde-Smith * editor of Haitian Vodou *

With this book Turner issues both a warning and reassurance that while post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans is changing, the vibrant traditions of jazz religion and second lines must continue.

* Journal of African American History *

People who were there should read this book. People who were not there must read it.

* PopMatters *

A well-written, well-researched, thoughtful, and generative book.

-- George Lipsitz * University of California, Santa Barbara *

I highly recommend this text to undergrads, grads, faculty, and researchers. Its pages unfold critical analysis for the advanced scholar, and its prose makes clear a complex culture to the casual learner.

* Journal of African American Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253024947
Author Richard Brent Turner
Format Paperback
Page Count 236
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 345g