Finding God in All the Black Places

The Emory Digital Publishing in the Humanities initiative and the Auburn Avenue Research Library welcome Dr. Beretta Smith-Shomade in conversation with Dr. Nsenga Burton for a discussion of Smith-Shomade's new book .

In Finding God in All the Black Places, Dr. Smith-Shomade contends that Black spirituality and Black church religiosity are the critical crux of Black popular culture. She argues that cultural, community, and social support live within the Black church and that spirit, art, and progress are deeply entwined and seal this connection. Including the work of artists such as Mary J. Blige, D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Prince, Spike Lee, and Oprah Winfrey, the book examines contemporary Black television, film, music and digital culture to demonstrate the role, impact, and dominance of spirituality and religion in Black popular culture.

Following the talk, please join us for a catered reception and a chance to purchase the book from a local bookseller. This book is also freely available online as an open-access digital edition.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is encouraged.

This book talk event is supported by the Mellon-funded Digital in the Publishing in the Humanities initiative at Emory University and the Auburn Avenue Research Library.

About the Speakers

• Beretta Smith-Shomade, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at Emory University. Her research has always explored Black representation, industrial concerns, production processes, and aesthetic and narrative constructions within television and larger Black popular culture. She has authored three books within these frameworks: Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television (Rutgers, 2002), Pimpin' Ain't Easy: Selling Black Entertainment Television (Routledge, 2007), and the most recent, Finding God in All the Black Places: Sacred Imaginings in Black Popular Culture (Rutgers, 2024).
  She has also edited two anthologies, Watching While Black: Centering the Television of Black Audiences (Rutgers, 2012)—a 2013 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and its remix, Watching While Black Rebooted! The Television and Digitality of Black Audiences (Rutgers, 2023). Beyond these works, her research appears across diverse journals and anthologies on subjects such as Black filmic representations, cable television, and Black spirituality and African-American women. Her current interests have returned her to creative scholarship, specifically documentary media making. She has a trilogy in the works that explores the linkages between Black mothers, Black mothers and their Black daughters, and Black daughters.

• Nsenga Burton, Ph.D. (she/her) is an award-winning entrepreneur, curator, writer and media influencer. She is founder and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed news site T, which covers news of the African Diaspora. An expert on the intersection of race, class, gender and sexuality with film, media and technological industries, the thought leader has contributed to CNN, Huffington Post, The Grio, The New York Times and USA Today. She currently serves as editor-at-large for Black Press USA’s News Wire.
  Nsenga is a former editor-at-large for The Root, guest editor fo American Theatre Magazine, inaugural editor-in-chief for HealthPlus digital magazine powered by the Atlanta Voice and cultural critic for Creative Loafing. Dr. Burton’s writings appear in more than 200 print papers weekly reaching 22 million readers per month and more than 3 million people online daily. Nsenga also works as a podcast producer and host of "Need to Know with Dr. Nsenga Burton," on all available outlets. She lives in Atlanta with her daughter Kai and fur-sons Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Surprise.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Auburn Avenue Research Library, 101 Auburn Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, United States