“Consider the laughter on October 15, 1982—after 1,000 people died from complications related to AIDS—at the Reagan White House press briefing.”

Ashon Crawley
Ashon Crawley is associate professor of religious studies and African-American and African studies at the University of Virginia and the author of Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility (Fordham University Press, 2016) and The Lonely Letters (Duke University Press, 2020). He has been a Yaddo interdisciplinary arts fellow, a MacDowell interdisciplinary arts fellow, a New City Arts Initiative Fellow, and a LIT (Learning It Together) Artist Fellow. His work has been featured at Second Street Gallery, Welcome Gallery, Bridge Projects, and the California African American Museum.
Headshot credit: Benita Mayo, 2021.