Creativity, Religion and Youth Cultures

This book explores the intersection between faith, religion and performing arts in culture-based youth groups. The co-constitutive identity-building work of music, performance, and drama for Samoan and Sudanese youth in church contexts has given rise to new considerations of diversity, cultural identity and the religious practices and rituals that inform them. Culture-specific churches provide a safe if "imagined community" in which young people can express these emerging identities, which move beyond simple framings like "multicultural" to explicitly include faith practices. The book also examines the ways in which diasporic experiences are reshaping these identities and locations.