Quarantine Diary 27, part two | Anti-Racism vigil

The anti-racism vigil by religious congregations along 16th Street NW in Washington DC continues. 

May the sound of the shofar call forth liberation and justice.

Black Lives Matter.

Running, 1977

Into the mystic.

Rosh Hashanah 5780

Blessings to all in the upcoming year.
שנה טובה ומתוקה

Singing and Praying Bands

These photographs are of Singing and Praying Bands, an African-American sacred music form that dates back over two hundred years. This worship practice  also called ring shout, is still practiced in a small number of churches around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Delaware.

Under the direction of folklorist Jonathan David, these pictures were made in two sessions; July 6^, 1986 at Jefferson United Methodist Church, in Smithville, Maryland, and on August 3, 1986 at Lane United Methodist, on Taylor’s Island, Dorchester County, Maryland. Jefferson United Methodist is now named New Revived United Methodist, and it is the only one of five related congregations that still exists. Harriet Tubman, the great abolitionist leader and heroine of the Underground Railroad and Civil War, was born in a town with one of these original churches. The Singing and Praying Bands are a continuation of a form of worship service that survives from that era.

Thank you to the men and women of these congregations for letting me into their holy space, and to my friend Jonathan David for the opportunity to receive, learn, and document.

I trust some of the photographs spark a glimmer of what the Bands call “laboring in the spirit.”

Learn more about the Singing and Praying Bands here: 

Jonathan David's excellent book on them,  Together Let Us Sweetly Live: The Singing and Praying Bands, is available on Amazon.

I have created an artist's book of photographs of this work. It is available to preview and to purchase here.

Catholic School

I recently documented  programs at a very fine Catholic school in northern Virginia.

Her are a few of my favorite images from the school and mass.

Thanks to everyone at the school for their help.