Unmute! Listening for Religion in the Age of COVID-19

When the stay at home orders were issued in March 2020, almost all aspects of Americans daily lives moved into domestic spaces and, in some cases, outdoor places. For religious communities, this required creative innovation to continue group gatherings and ritual practices. Over the course of the pandemic year, we witnessed individuals and communities experiment with new ways of performing religious rituals, from everyday practices to the most significant annual celebrations. The clips included in the New Religious Spaces playlist center on a change in the space where a traditional religious sound is heard. Ambient sounds of the new space – whether the tinny-ness of online space or the sounds of homes/outdoors spaces – are often audible and sometimes interfere. The principal religious practice being recorded is mostly unchanged.

– Amy DeRogatis