Charmaine Minniefield is an artist-activist whose mission is to save Black stories “as a radical action of social justice.” Minniefield’s “The Praise House Project” celebrates the history of praise houses and ring shouts. It is a multimedia experience. When the Praise House Project is open, the inside of the house is an in-depth visual and sound experience.

Initially built on plantations, praise houses, or pray’s houses, were small one-room structures where enslaved people would gather to worship. Praise houses used to be found all along the coast, but only a few remain.

Ring shouting involves moving in a circle, shuffling and stamping feet, and clapping hands while in prayer. The earliest known example of ring shouting in the United States was in the 1840s. This practice is believed to be tied back to West African traditions. Ring shouting is a ritual celebrated when a person accepts Christianity. It is still practiced today, and the evolution of the practice can still be seen in Black congregations today, especially among the surviving Gullah Geechee communities. The McIntosh County Shouters out of the Briar Patch community in Georgia keep the practice alive today. They still use a praise house today.

So far, the Praise House Project has been displayed at Oakland Cemetery, Emory University, and downtown Decatur, Georgia. The Oakland Cemetery installation was the first exhibition. It commemorated the lives of over 800 enslaved people who were buried in the cemetery. The Emory exhibition was on the grounds of the Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in 2023. Currently, the Praise House is located at the corner of Trinity Place and Commerce Drive to honor and remember the historic Black community of Beacon Hill. This community was settled after the Civil War and began to be erased in the 1930s as Decatur expanded. The next exhibit will be at South-view Cemetery.

To read more about The Praise Project, please visit the website.