Rastafari and Reggae: A Marriage Made in Jamaica February 6, 2007

Ennis B. Edmonds, Kenyon College

Tuesday, Feb 6, 4:30 pm, Clark 206
11130 Bellflower Road, Cleveland
Free and Open to the Public

"Ennis B. Edmonds is assistant professor of African-American religions, American religions at Kenyon College. Formerly, he taught in Sociology and Pan African Studies and directed the Pan African Studies Program at Barnard College, Columbia University. His areas of expertise are African Diaspora Religions, Religion in America, and Sociology of Religion. His research has focused primarily on Rastafari, leading to the recently published Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers (Oxford University Press). He also published "Dread 'I' In-a-Babylon: Ideological Resistance and Cultural Revitalization," and "The Structure and Ethos of Rastafari" in Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader. His current research interests include the conversion of Rastas to Evangelical Christianity, the Jamaican religious group called Revival Zion, and religion in Afro-Caribbean and African American popular culture and literature.

Professor Edmonds will give a brief overview of Rastafari, then he will talk about the influence of Rastafari on musical character and lyrical content of classic Reggae."

Official Website: http://www.case.edu/artsci/bakernord/events.htm#Rastafari