Outcasts in Prayer at the IUPUI Campus in Indianapolis

AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton

INDIANA - Photographer Rick Nahmias took California as a window into the diversity of religion in America in an exhibit at the Cultural Ats Gallery at the Campus Center building of IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis) in Indianapolis. Entitled, “Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited,” the exhibit completed in 2006 documents marginalized communities at prayer in their own faith traditions.

Using large scale photography, Nahimias merges art, history and theology in a collection that is thoroughly interfaith,and introduces viewers to the nation’s only halfway house of addicts self-identified as Jewish, a transsexual gospel choir, a Buddhist community in San Quentin, a Mormon congregation organized by the deaf for the dear, Latina sex workers worshiping of the female folk deity Santisima Muerte, and more. “Golden States of Grace brings together such depth and diversity of faith and humanity, that it seems three-dimensional” said Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking. The exhibit is on view through the end of February.