The Importance of Praise Houses and Ring Shouts

The Praise House project by artist Charmaine Minifield aims to remember and assert the African identity and culture of enslaved Africans through the recreation of praise houses and the performance of ring shouts. Praise houses were small structures where enslaved Africans gathered as secret safe spaces to express their culture and resistance against erasure. The ring shout, a form of communication and celebration, would take place in these praise houses. These practices continue to be present in black churches today as a way of preserving and affirming African cultural traditions. The Praise House project creates immersive installations that replicate these structures and incorporate digital experiences to revive the traditions and acknowledge the endurance and will to live of African Americans.