ashon crawley.
loss. nothing. memorial.
“HOMEGOING” stages a confrontation with grief, shame and silence. It is a means to honor the dead. I have in the past used the architectural method of section drawings as a way to think about how blackqueer people inhabit worlds of antagonism but also how we produce worlds of possibility. Using architectural methods, particularly of sectional drawing, I have expanded my audiovisual arts practice by delving in the visual methods and strategies.
“loss. nothing. memorial.” is part of this project and funding from the Crossroads Project allowed me resources to purchase a Hammond organ to not only practice musicianship with now-deceased musicians but also to write music for the “HOMEGOING” aspect of the project.
The project stages attempts to confront religious and spiritual violence and how it took shape in the 80s and 90s, targeting blackqueer people with musicians, singers and choir directors as the primary targets of that violence. The queerness of black gospel music is often discussed as a stereotype, and thus circulates as unverifiable. And the sound of the black church changed because of theological convictions, the law and the public health crisis of HIV/AIDs in the 80s and 90s. “loss. nothing. memorial.” is a sonic immersive environment that both honors the density of sonic material musicians that have died provided while also allowing the sonic material to manifest in a visual register. Versions of “loss. nothing. memorial.” were presented at the University of Richmond, April 2022-December 20233; The Art of Black Pride 2nd Annual Exhibition in Houston, TX, May 2-14, 2023; and another was exhibited at New City Arts Initiative in Charlottesville, VA, June 3-29, 2023.
Ashon T. Crawley is a writer, artist and teacher, exploring the intersection of performance, blackness, queerness and spirituality. Professor of Religious Studies and African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, he is author of Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility (Fordham University Press) and The Lonely Letters (Duke University Press). He is currently working on a book about black social life; a book about the Hammond B3 organ, the black church, and sexuality; and a short story collection. A MacDowell interdisciplinary arts fellow, and a New City Arts Initiative Fellow, his work has been featured at Second Street Gallery, Welcome Gallery, Bridge Projects and the California African American Museum. All his work is about otherwise possibility.
