Complicated Truths: A Conversation with Kate Bowler and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley

Thursday, February 24, 2022
Complicated Truths: A Conversation with Kate Bowler and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley
5:30 pm
Complicated Truths: A Conversation with Kate Bowler and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley
Location: Duke Chapel
Kate Bowler and Lanecia Rouse Tinsley

Multidisciplinary artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley and Duke Divinity School Professor Kate Bowler hold a public conversation about themes in the exhibition Reliquary of Complicated Truths, currently on view at Duke Chapel.

The event is free and open to the public. Face masks must be worn inside the Chapel at all times. Paid parking is available on a first come, first served basis in the Bryan Center Parking Lot at 125 Science Drive. ADA parking is available in the Bryan Center Surface Lot at the same address.
 

The discussion will also be livestreamed here.

The commissioned exhibition by Tinsley takes its inspiration from a scene in a book by Professor Bowler. In No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear), Professor Bowler describes being on a trip to the Grand Canyon when she comes upon a remote chapel that is covered in graffiti and slips of paper inserted in the walls with written pleas from the heart, such as "I miss you every day" and "Did you make it to heaven, my love?" Inspired by this scene, Tinsely created an installation from discarded wood, paper, and other material that invites viewers to place within the cracks of the work their response to the prompt "In my life, there is no cure for...."

Reliquary of Complicated Truths can be viewed at Duke Chapel until March 1 between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. daily, except during services and events as indicated on the Chapel website. Learn more here.

In addition to the discussion between Tinsley and Bowler, the event will include music from singer-songwriter Taylor Leonhardt. The discussion will be followed by a service of Choral Vespers at 7:00 p.m., which comprises hymns, prayers, and music of the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
 

Tinsley is an artist whose portfolio includes a range of abstract painting, photography, teaching, writing, speaking, and curatorial projects for nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Duke Divinity School, she is the artist-in-residence at the Holy Family HTX church in Houston and was the 2020–2021 artist-in-residence for the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) at Rice University. She is a co-founding creative director for the ImagiNoir Equity Group, an international alliance and community development and equity group of black activists, artists, writers, scholars, philanthropists, and educators. In addition, she is the director of justice and the arts with projectCURATE.

Bowler, PhD is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke Divinity School. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age thirty-five, she penned the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and her latest, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). On her podcast, Everything Happens, she speaks with writers, actors, theologians, and other public figures about what wisdom and truth they’ve uncovered during difficult circumstances.

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