From the Indiana University Press website:

An examination of the musical, religious, and political landscape of black New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina, this revised edition looks at how these factors play out in a new millennium of global apartheid. Richard Brent Turner explores the history and contemporary significance of second lines—the group of dancers who follow the first procession of church and club members, brass bands, and grand marshals in black New Orleans's jazz street parades. Here music and religion interplay, and Turner's study reveals how these identities and traditions from Haiti and West and Central Africa are reinterpreted. He also describes how second line participants create their own social space and become proficient in the arts of political disguise, resistance, and performance.

About Richard Brent Turner:

Turner joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2001 and holds appointments in the Department of Religious Studies, African American Studies Program, and International Programs.

His research program focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary African-American religious history and African diaspora religions in the Black Atlantic world. He is especially interested in the following areas: Islam in the United States; religion and music in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina; Vodou in the United States and Haiti; interactions between African-American religion and popular music — jazz, soul, and hip hop; black nationalism and religion; African-American religion and human rights; ethnography; urban religious experience; and globalization and transnationalism.

Dr. Turner currently holds an ACLS Fellowship supporting his work on a book project on African-American religion and music in the 1960s. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, American Anthropological Association, and Association for Africanist Anthropology, and is on the board of directors of KOSANBA, an international scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou.

The Department of Religious Studies and African American Studies Program are part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa.