The domei is a popular narrative art form among the Mende people of Sierra Leone. Although it is a traditional form, the narratives are not remembered or retold, but on each occasion the performers recreate out of a common stock of characters and plots domeisia, which are singular and sometimes brilliant expressions of a singular, and often brilliant, culture. In this book Donald Cosentino presents a large selection of these narratives, as he collected them in dramatic performance on the verandahs and around the cooking fires of a Mende village. The domei is told to please, and Dr Cosentino details the various elements that constitute the pleasure of an oral performance. But beneath the surface glitter of these ironic, horrifying, bawdy and haunting narrative performances, there is an intellectual hardness of argument and debate which shines through the domeisia included here. Dominating these performances, and emblematic of the entire artistic tradition, are the 'everywoman' figure of the Defiant Maid, Yombo, and the 'everyman' Stubborn Farmer, Kpana.

Defiant Maids and Stubborn Farmers: Tradition and Invention in Mende Story Performance (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture)

Politics & Social Sciences

Cosentino, Donald J.

Social Sciences

Cambridge University Press

Defiant Maids and Stubborn Farmers: Tradition and Invention in Mende Story Performance (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture, Series Number 4)

The domei is a popular narrative art form among the Mende people of Sierra Leone. Although it is a traditional form, the narratives are not remembered or retold, but on each occasion the performers recreate out of a common stock of characters and plots domeisia, which are singular and sometimes brilliant expressions of a singular, and often brilliant, culture. In this book Donald Cosentino presents a large selection of these narratives, as he collected them in dramatic performance on the verandahs and around the cooking fires of a Mende village. The domei is told to please, and Dr Cosentino details the various elements that constitute the pleasure of an oral performance. But beneath the surface glitter of these ironic, horrifying, bawdy and haunting narrative performances, there is an intellectual hardness of argument and debate which shines through the domeisia included here. Dominating these performances, and emblematic of the entire artistic tradition, are the 'everywoman' figure of

Defiant Maids and Stubborn Farmers

Material expressions of spiritual belief are integral components of the Los Angeles landscape. Cathedrals, temples, churches, and shrines dot the city, but they are not the only sites where notions of the divine, or at least the supernatural, are made visible. Reflecting the broad ethnic and cultural reconfiguration of Southern California in recent years, botanicas have emerged as one of the most frequent purveyors of sacramental items. This book explores these fascinating venues and their role in transmitting, transforming, and critiquing traditional faiths. 
An ever-evolving combination of spiritual center, religious supply house, and alternate healthcare facility, the botanica is generally associated with folk Catholicism and other Latin American religious traditions. Vivid photographs and essays describe these sites of spirit-infused artistry, ceremonial activity, and community building.

Botanica Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art In The City Of Angels

Arts & Photography

Polk, Patrick Arthur

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Univ of California Museum of

Born in Port-au-Prince in 1954, Haitian artist Edouard Duval-Carrie studied in Canada and at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris before settling in Miami where he continues to live and work. Divine Revolution presents sequined banners, canvases with ornate frames, and a dramatic altar, all demonstrating the profound influence of Vodou and Haiti’s complex cultural and political history. These works range in subject matter from celebrations and chronicles of the Haitian Revolution to examinations of the current plight of Haiti and its people. Duval-Carrie's art reveals a side of the Haitian experience that is not evident on the nightly news. The surreal starlit journeys of the Vodou deities and spirits who populate his paintings, juxtaposed with his carnivalesque portrayals of oppressive colonial and contemporary regimes, offer insight into the paradoxes of Haitian existence and the ambivalent nature of power itself, as well as a vision of the integrity of Haiti's ritual and spiritual practices.

Divine Revolution : the Paintings of Edouard Duval Carrié

History & Criticism

Fowler Museum at UCLA

Pierrot Barra and his wife Marie Cassaise are the most astonishing artists that the author of this fascinating book has encountered in more than a decade of researching Vodou in Haiti. He discovered them deep in the ramshackle Iron Market of downtown Port-au-Prince where they make and sell what he considers to be the most original Vodou art in the world. In the glitter and bustle of the market Barra and Cassaise discern the lurking forms of divinities they serve as both priests and artists. From rubber dolls, sunglasses, holy cards, barbecue forks, goats' horns, speedometers, rosaries, junk jewelry, compact mirrors, Christmas ornaments, crucifixes, sequins, and velour they assemble fantastic sculptures that portray the fiery and potent gods of Haiti. Inspired through dreams sent by his divine mentor Ogou - generalissimo of the Vodou pantheon - Pierrot tears apart these random commodities and brings them back to new life with pop-it beads and tinselcord. Displaying the power of a magician, he transforms heaps of rubble into glamorous repositories for the capricious and demanding gods who rule his life and guide his work. This volume focuses on how Barra and Cassaise redefine ancient African-American traditions of sacred art, even as they push those traditions in directions the author views as "postmodern" or "outsider art." The author warns, however, that no matter how their appreciators may choose to label their art, Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassaise remain deeply Haitian and profoundly Vodou. Their sculptures capture the cultural history of a country sustained by distant memories of Africa, haunted by the imagery of Catholic saints and Masonic regalia, and bewitched by imported Hollywood kitsch. For them, lithographs of the Virgin Mary nestle easily with plastic figurines of Bugs Bunny. Yet even within a tradition open to these sorts of commercial pentecosts, the liberties taken by the artists are breathtaking. 
Donald J. Cosentino is chair of the folklore program at UCLA and editor of African Arts magazine.

Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra and Marie Cassaise (Folk Art and Artists Series)

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI

An illustrated study of the history and development of Eshu, the Yoruba spirit.

Eshu: The Divine Trickster

Chemeche, George

Silva, Vagner Gonçalves da

Antique Collectors Club Dist

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Books by Cosentino, Donald J.