i, heresy: A Black Studies and Dance Movement Research Intervention on Radical Reimagination of Black Liberation Theology

Abstract

We are in a transitional time– where political ideologies of black liberation are explicitly expanding to include class, gender, and queer, intersectional political interests. This thesis posits that to be a black Christian pursuing liberation at this historical time requires deconstruction of old spiritual realities and ideologies, while engaging in the reimagination of black liberation theology. This thesis is grounded in two distinct approaches: a close reading and intervention in social and political history; then secondly through a multi-medium dance production which reflects this analytical intervention. This thesis aims to center the voice of black, queer, femme persons in (black) liberation theology ideologies. In chapter one, I explore embodiment theory- an interdisciplinary and multi-medium approach to understanding the connection between dance movement and black studies critical theory, including the conjecture of socio-political significance. In chapter two, I focus on deconstruction of past political and religious ideologies, exposing spiritual dissonance with the old political ideological tradition which validates the dominant, white supremacist, masculinist, and heteronormative order of the state. And finally, in chapter three I address this spiritual dissonance by looking to the feminist, origins of Christian church practices to validate the reimagination of a black liberation theology.