What are some new ways to help break the riches of academic theological conversation out of the confines of the academy? A few weeks ago, I attended an event that got me thinking about the possibilities. It was a reception at a hair salon for a new book by one of the founders of Black Theology. The event, at Hair Rules on the West Side of Manhattan, was to celebrate the publication of The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis, 2011) by renowned theologian Professor James Cone.

 

 

This book, which I am just underway reading, promises a sobering and searching analysis of the relationship between the cross of Jesus’ crucifixion and the lynching trees on which African Americans were hanged by whites in the United States from the late 19^th century through the 1960s. This is a hard and harrowing story of Roman colonial terrorism in antiquity, and of white/American terrorism that took place, indeed, within the lifetime and memory of many who are alive today. There is video of an excellent interview and conversation here between Prof. Cornel West (Princeton) and Prof. Cone that took place at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in 2009, and the discussion eventually comes around to Cone’s new book.

Holding this event at a hair salon, a traditional site of African American community, and moreover, at the interracial hair salon that Hair Rules is, created the occasion for friends of the salon to come and socialize under the sign of an important theological work.

 

 

The event was co-organized by celebrated hair shaman Anthony Dickey, the owner of Hair Rules, and the renowned actress and performance artist Anna Deavere Smith. Dozens of copies of The Cross and the Lynching Tree were purchased for all who attended. It was memorable to see Union Theological Seminary President Serene Jones addressing dozens of people in the salon who presumably are not usually involved with academic theology.

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