Welcome to On Tomorrow’s Edge, where we talk about what we need to shift, who we’ll need to become, and resources we already have to meet and make a future worth living in.
I’ve added a new section for opportunities you might want to check out. Enjoy! —Keisha
Life finds a way.
I took this picture while at the car repair shop this summer. As we drove down a local highway, some poor family had their tire blow out right behind us, and—shake-boom-flash-bam—our car accrued a few thousand dollars’ worth of damage.
We were shaken but unharmed. The shop fixed it. It could all have been a lot worse.
A few weeks later, as I was checking over the shop’s work, I saw this stubborn bright grass stem straining for the sun, as if it was no big deal to be growing between the cracks of a wall at a car repair shop instead of in the ground.
I bet the shop occasionally has someone go through the yard and prune that grass out.
And they should. Because if they don’t, that grass will be the end of that wall.
Life finds a way.
Life always finds a way—and walls will crumble in the face of it.
August
I spoke to the scholars of the International Religious Liberty Association during their weeklong 130th anniversary global conference. At their Meeting of Experts toward the end of the week, I presented a short paper about space, inclusive religious freedom, religiously unaffiliated people (colloquially called “Nones”), and cooperative ways we can frame shared futures and common public life.
It was my first time being hosted by my childhood denomination after several years away in multifaith and other advocacy spaces, and so the environment felt both familiar and strange.
Pastors and lawyers, including a pastor-lawyer I last saw over 20 years ago in Jamaica, converged from every inhabited continent except Antarctica. It was good to connect and reconnect… a little like homecoming, a little like graduation.
I particularly enjoyed contributions from His Excellency Adama Dieng, who recently advised the United Nations on the prevention of genocide; Knox Thames, now director of Pepperdine’s Global Faith and Inclusive Societies program; Amal Idrissi, law professor who flew to us all the way from Morocco, and Azza Karam, the most recent secretary general of Religions for Peace.
Some of my experiences that week helped me see the power in Kelly Hayes’ and Mariame Kaba’s argument from Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care. It’s excerpted in the most recent issue of the Boston Review:
When people delve into activism, they often grapple with questions like, “Am I willing to get arrested?” when often the more pressing question for a new activist is, “Am I willing to listen, even when it’s hard?”
… It is our ability to constructively engage with other people that will ultimately power our efforts. We have to nurture that ability and respect its importance in all of the ways that our society does not. And that skill of constructive engagement starts with listening.
Read the rest in “How much discomfort is the whole world worth?” (September 2023).
Also this summer—
Redress for the family of Henrietta Lacks—finally. A medical research company that profited off Lacks’ body settled with the family this year. Read about the cells, the settlement, and the questions that remain of how to hold institutions accountable:
“Legality is not the standard and can never be the standard for health care. It has to be ethical.” —Keisha Ray, author of Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of HealthDemocracy organizers taking stock. Participants at the 22 Century Initiative conference met in July to talk about the state of play in democracy and anti-authoritarianism, and what advocates and organizers need ahead of 2024.
For Convergence, organizer Scot Nakagawa and Loretta Ross traced authoritarian Right movements since the 1950s, explaining the shared sense that democracy advocates will need over the next several years:
“We have to convince people today that they are not the entire chain of freedom. The chain of freedom stretches back toward your ancestors and forward toward your descendants. Your job today is to make sure the chain doesn't break at your link. That's all you need to focus on: Not letting the chain break at your link.” —Loretta J. RossAliens, really? Current and former US government workers claimed that the government has been quietly storing “non-human origin technical vehicles.” They made enough of a swirl that the New York Times’ Ezra Klein tried to parse the news with one of the journalists who’s helped to report it. It’s definitely one of his stranger episodes.
And visions of humanity beyond Earth and the body. For decades, philosophers, technologists, and billionaires have imagined humanity’s next chapter in space, or in some disembodied digital form of consciousness.
Those visions have accelerated in the last few years between social and environmental crisis and breathless reporting on “artificial general intelligence,” something that doesn’t exist and might never.
But something’s missing in these visions—in some cases, billions of people. As Emile P. Torres explains at Truthdig:
“History shows that the march to utopia can leave a trail of destruction in its wake. If the ends can justify the means, and the end is paradise, then what exactly is off the table for protecting and preserving this end?”
We’re going to come back to this last item later this fall, because anti-humanism and transhumanism are picking up energy from lots of different social quarters, many of them with resources deep enough to reshape life for all of us.
Introducing a new podcast: Moral Repair
Since January, I’ve been working with Rev. Annanda Barclay and the Big Questions team at PRX on a new audio show called “Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech.”
Annanda and I each care a lot about how tech and spirituality impact everyday people’s daily lives. This year we’ve talked with some incredible technologists, spiritual leaders, and scholars about the innovations that shape us all and resources from Black culture that can help heal the moral injuries these innovations cause.
You’ll be able to listen to new episodes every two weeks on Apple, Spotify, and other podcast platforms; find us under technology, culture, and spirituality.
This season starts October 4, and I’m so excited.
How can you help?
Follow the show—search for it wherever you listen to podcasts, and click the follow button.
After September 27, share the promo and trailer.
After October 4, listen to episodes, review the show, and talk back to Annanda and me on our very new Instagram, on Twitter [X], on LinkedIn, and by Gmail (MoralRepairPodcast).
If you need a graphic as you share online, use this one:
Coming Soon: Network Programs
My network colleagues are up to some beautiful work this fall.
A Podcast: In early October, Rev. Amanda Henderson and Lex Dunbar launch the next season of Complexified, a podcast for the religiously curious and politically frustrated about religion, politics, and real life.
New episodes begin October 5. Listen everywhere.A Symposium: October 26-27, 2023, the BJC Center for Faith, Justice and Reconciliation and the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning co-host the virtual symposium “(Dis)Belief: Reimagining the Religious Landscape of Black America.”
“Perhaps the most enduring shift in the nature and meaning of the Black Church in public will result not from the work of a particular organization or socio-economic movement but through the growing population of African Americans who claim no particular religious tradition — the ‘nones.’”
Block out these days on your calendar and register on Eventbrite.A Retreat: And on November 7, Marcia Lee and Valerie Brown co-facilitate an online retreat through the Center for Courage and Renewal:
Still We Heal: A Courage & Renewal Retreat Series for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Spiritual Leaders & Activists.
If you know someone who might need a resource like this, point them to the webpage for more info.
Keep growing toward the sun, friends.
Until soon,
Keisha
My twitter seems a bit better? Threats of regulations from the EU?
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