“I had to take care of the community; I had to take care of the dead.” –Mr. Joseph H. Brown, III, CEO of Joseph H. Brown, Jr.… Read more “Voices of Funeral Service, Baltimore“
Author: ritualsinthemaking
Voices of Funeral Service, New Jersey
In order to understand the state of the African American mortuary industry during a pandemic world, we must understand the roots of the Black Activist Funeral Tradition.… Read more “Voices of Funeral Service, New Jersey“
Culture Keepers
Showcasing the “Culture Keepers” Research: Dr. Fletcher presents a preview of the oral history project on African American funeral homes
“It Feels Like We’re Putting Them to Rest”: The final day of cleaning and ordering the flags from the In America: Remember installation
The 20,000 flags enter a new stage as a physical-digital archive of COVID loss and
remembrance.
Voices of Funeral Service, Missouri
Passed down through the generations in the African American community, funeral Service is a network of families forged by blood and bond.
Coding, Plotting, and Analyzing the Language of Misinformation: A deep dive into contested knowledge on social media
Examining thousands of posts about COVID on social media, the CIC subteam is using qualitative database software to analyze them.
Materializing the Virtual: Engaging in Online and In-Person COVID-19 March to Remember Memorial Events
Mobilization around COVID justice and remembrance takes different forms and is propelled by a range of organizations, activists, and mourners. A prime example was the multi-sited COVID… Read more “Materializing the Virtual: Engaging in Online and In-Person COVID-19 March to Remember Memorial Events”
Signs of Insistence and Resistance: Clashing Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic
In the early months of 2022, the United States was once again in the middle of a surge with the omicron variant sweeping through communities across the… Read more “Signs of Insistence and Resistance: Clashing Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic”
Field Notes from ‘In America, how could this happen…’
In a way, these two signs create a moment of ironic condemnation. These are two institutions toward which many Americans look for safety and yet suspended between them is a representation of a quarter-million deceased citizens.
‘When Everything is Stripped Away, What is Left is All We Really Need’
“I cut sprigs and then tucked them in the grave by the coffin. I think these were more meaningful than store-bought flowers because they were her flowers. Her azaleas.”
Rituals in the Making 