Professor Allen will speak at UVM in the Spring 2024 CRES Lecture Series March 28

"Even Jesus Got His Crown in Front of a Crowd:"  Exploring Liberation Theology in Black Lives Matter Protest Music

Thursday, March 28th, 2024 Memorial Lounge, Waterman 4:30 PM

UVM's Critical Race & Ethnic Studies (CRES) Program
Invites you to:  
Spring 2024 CRES Lecture Series
Presenting:  Shaonta' Allen, Assistant Professor in Sociology at Dartmouth College

The Black Church operated as the institutional center of the Civil Rights Movement, however scholars of Social Movements, Black Studies, and Religion, have debated to what extent Christian theologies continue to politically motivate Black communi-ties amid the present and ongoing Black Lives Matter Movement today. This project contributes to these scholarly debates by focusing on Black Lives Matter protest songs. Analyzing the lyrics of prominent songs affiliated with the BLM Movement, findings reveal that themes within Black Liberation Theology such as justice, hope, death, and emancipation are present in contemporary protest music, despite ongo-ing critiques of the Black Church as a "dying" institution with declining political in-fluence.