2025 Racial Solidarity

Gathering 

February 13-16, 2025

The Whitley Hotel
Atlanta, GA

Leadership Team

Participants

Shari Mackinson, Texas Christian University
James Howard Hill, Boston University
Shatayvia Wynn, Rhodes College
Eric Williams, Duke University
Amey Adkins-Jones, Boston College
Lakeisha Lockhart, Unioin Presbyterian Seminary
Alton Pollard, Wake Forrest University
Adam Bond, Baylor University

Description

Nobody knows the trouble I see
Nobody knows my sorrow
Nobody knows the trouble I see
{In-between space}
Glory Halleluiah!

These lyrics, from a well-known spiritual, depict a predicament that moves from despair to ecstasy, euphoria, praise without revealing what happened in the in-between space. For those without cultural knowledge or insider wisdom – the song might be glorifying trouble. For those who know the in-between space, the space without articulation, disclosure, or narration, resolves into a revelatory move of the Spirit, a remembering, a rescue, a healing, an intervening, an experience of having been snatched-out-the-fire. The lyrics tell the listeners that the person in trouble is able to “see.” If the person was able to see trouble – what else did the person see that moved them from despair to shoutin’, from sorrow to frenzy, from death dealing circumstance to safety? What was seen by the seer in the in-between space?

Through storytelling, case study, and other artistic expression, the conversation will be at the intersection of Black imagination, racial solidarity, and spirituality. Reflecting upon our scholarly careers thus far, we will tell stories of moments of personal experiences of having seen, witnessed, and benefitted from miracles, interventions, intercessions, involvements, rescues, liberations, and salvagings which saved, freed, liberated, emancipated, healed us for continuation as Black scholars. 

Questions for Contemplation and Communal Consideration

• What is the alchemy of the people to turn the hollowness of suffering into the fullness of joy?
• Stories both reveal and conceal the truth of Black imagination, wonder, and possibility; what personal stories from the journey of our scholarly careers can be told to reveal the capacities of black imagination?
• What spiritual technology is accessed, utilized, applied, conjured by Black scholars between the suffering and the joy of resilience, survival and continued participation in scholarship?
• What material technology is known by Black scholars for survival, resilience, and justice?
• In moments of trouble and sorrow, what relationships, which communal habits, what kinds of networking allow Black scholars to survive and experience relief, grace, hope, and mercy?
• What are the personal experiences, narratives, and stories of healing, rescue, solidarity which might be mined for strengthening conversation between scholars about Black imagination?
• In accounting for ways Black scholars have defied the odds, thwarted the supremist traditions, and survived (a little bit), how do scholars tell the stories of mystery, mystical encounters, and luck?
• What is hope for those pursuing a life of scholarship? In what forms does it manifest for Black people working in the academy? When and why?
• For Black scholars of religion and theology, what is healing?
• How do we use Black imagination as a technology to unearth, remember, and create relevant ways of flourishing for Black scholars?
• What are the practices and strategies of healing, freedom, and resilience for Black scholars?
• What are communal approaches to Black imagination which can be learned, reaffirmed, and deployed for those in academic spaces?
• What are the spiritual assets which foster and nurture racial solidarity and the possibility of community in the academy?
• What kinds of imaginations are needed for the perpetuation of Black scholars?
• What happens in the “In between space” when the trouble gives way to joy that heals, restores, and preserves Black people?
• What kinds of spiritual, psychic, and otherworldly resources are available to Black scholars and are those resources adequate for the task of the scholarly career?

Aim

• By extrapolating from personal stories of victory, to investigate the habits and practices of flourishing, resilience, and survival of Black people to strengthen teaching and our teaching lives
• To explore the meaning of and rekindle understandings of staying in-touch with spiritual truths and spiritual activity
• To define and redefine Black imagination for use in Black scholarship
• To connect the work of solidarity with personal experiences of healing and rescue
• To recollect personal experiences of solidarity and healing
• To collaborate on ways of incorporating life-giving habits and practices into our teaching habits and practices