Embodying the Nonhuman, Embracing the Alien: The Hyperbolic Strangeness of Blackness

Contemplating the techniques of white nationalism used to refuse Black ontology and deny Black belonging to the humanity of Canadian nationhood, this article considers how art imaginatively visualizes rebellion against the racist logics that regulate such denials. Exploring the function of hyperbole, this article examines the ways the willfully heightened strangeness of the extraterrestrial Afro-Astronaut and Black Muslim monster depicted in performance and visual art trouble racial matrixes through the dissonance provoked by the Other's unfamiliar display of excess.

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas

The contributors to Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and transformation of social relationships and political and economic power. Among other topics, the essays examine the dynamics of religious and racial identity among Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals; the significance of cloth coverings in Islamic practice in northern Nigeria; the ethics of socially engaged hip-hop lyrics by Black Muslim artists in Britain; ritual dance performances among Mama Tchamba devotees in Togo; and how Ifá practitioners from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, and the United States join together in a shared spiritual ethnicity. From possession and spirit-induced trembling to dance, the contributors outline how embodied religious practices are central to expressing and shaping interiority and spiritual lives, national and ethnic belonging, ways of knowing and techniques of healing, and sexual and gender politics. In this way, the body is a crucial site of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent. Contributors. Rachel Cantave, Youssef Carter, N. Fadeke Castor, Yolanda Covington-Ward, Casey Golomski, Elyan Jeanine Hill, Nathanael J. Homewood, Jeanette S. Jouili, Bertin M. Louis Jr., Camee Maddox-Wingfield, Aaron Montoya, Jacob K. Olupona, Elisha P. Renne

Young diaspora Somali women's navigation of intersectional identities in online social media spaces

Using Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality, this research examines how young Somali women have used the arts to challenge negative mainstream media discourse regarding the Black, Muslim and Somali identities. This research, similar to Crichlow's work on narrative sharing in the classroom space being used to amplify the voice of the oppressed and the marginalized, finds that young Somali women are using the arts interact with their intersectional identities and share them in online spaces. Social media has provided room for them to use and amplify their own voices which inevitably challenges negative representations promoted by mainstream media outlets while interacting with their intersectional identities. Using 6 Somali women from the arts communities in two of the major Somali-populated cities in the West; Toronto, Canada, and Minneapolis, USA, this work explores how young Somali women artists have been able to critically and creatively shape a more nuanced discourse about their identities. Keywords: Diaspora youth, Black AND Muslim, Somali women, arts-based inquiry, belonging, social media, narrative sharing, resiliency.

Young diaspora Somali women's navigation of intersectional identities in online social media spaces

Using Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality, this research examines how young Somali women have used the arts to challenge negative mainstream media discourse regarding the Black, Muslim and Somali identities. This research, similar to Crichlow's work on narrative sharing in the classroom space being used to amplify the voice of the oppressed and the marginalized, finds that young Somali women are using the arts interact with their intersectional identities and share them in online spaces. Social media has provided room for them to use and amplify their own voices which inevitably challenges negative representations promoted by mainstream media outlets while interacting with their intersectional identities. Using 6 Somali women from the arts communities in two of the major Somali-populated cities in the West; Toronto, Canada, and Minneapolis, USA, this work explores how young Somali women artists have been able to critically and creatively shape a more nuanced discourse about their identities. Keywords: Diaspora youth, Black AND Muslim, Somali women, arts-based inquiry, belonging, social media, narrative sharing, resiliency.

Identifying a space for young Black Muslim women in contemporary Britain

Young Black Muslim Women (BMW) have complex, intersectional identities and exist at the margins of various identity groupings. Given this, members of the community can face societal relegation across, not only race and gender lines, but across religious ones, too. This paper explores the lived experiences of intragroup discrimination, identity and belonging in 11 young Black Muslim Women in the United Kingdom. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants and thematically analysed through the lens of intersectionality. The use of an intersectional framework facilitated an understanding of the manner in which the sample was multiply marginalised. Two key themes emerged from the interviews: firstly, around experiences of intragroup and intersectional discrimination and, secondly, around the challenges of responding to and coping with the negative effects of such discrimination. Participants discussed the cross-cutting nature through which they faced discrimination: from within the Black community; from within the Muslim community; and as a result of their gender. The non-exclusivity of these three identities result in constant encounters of discrimination along different dimensions to their personal identity. They also developed diverse means of coping with this marginalisation including drawing from religious beliefs and mobile identifications, i.e. performing different aspects of their identities in different contexts. The present study contributes to existing knowledge in its focus on an under-researched group and emphasises the negative effects of intragroup discrimination. The paper importantly highlights the diversity within the Black community and considers the (in)visibility of Black Muslim Women within society.

Racializing the Good Muslim: Muslim White Adjacency and Black Muslim Activism in South Africa

Founded in Birmingham, England in 1984, Islamic Relief is today the world’s largest and most-recognized Western-based Islamically-inspired non-governmental organization. Framed by an analysis of processes of racialization, I argue that Islamic Relief operationalizes not a singular, but multiple Muslim humanitarianisms. I examine what I suggest are competing racial projects of distinct humanitarianisms with regards to HIV and AIDS, health, and wellness. I consider the racial implications of British state-based soft-power interventions that seek to de-radicalize Muslims towards appropriately ‘moderate’ perspectives on gender and sexuality. In South Africa, I argue that Black Muslim staff embrace grassroots efforts aimed towards addressing the material and social conditions of their community, with a focus on economic self-determination and self-sufficiency. I claim that the orientation of these Black Muslim grassroots initiatives denotes a humanitarianism of another kind that challenges the material and ethical implications of a humanitarianism framed within a logic of global white supremacy, and that is conditioned by racial capitalism.