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Soul Beauty: Religion and Black Expressive Cultures

Companion guide for Religion 374/ African American Studies 380 course which "examines how religion becomes the source language and practices for Black artists to express what it means to be Black in the Americas".

Databases

Overview

This guide offers a list of primary and secondary source databases to aid in finding documents for use in the course assignments, including the library catalog (NUsearch).

   

Databases

Search example: Zora Neale Hurston gives results grouped under several categories - journals, historical newspapers, essays, video and images, reference, etc. 

Links to Archival collections covered in class: 

  • Melville J Herskovits Papers - document Herskovits' career during a period of very rapid growth of both anthropology and African studies.
  • Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers - spanning the years 1915-197, they document Turner's extensive educational training, teaching career, linguistic research, and the revolutionary theories on black speech development in America that he pioneered. 
  • Katherine Flowers Papers - reflect a life dedicated to the art of dance, particularly African-American dance. They document Flowers' long career as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.