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Black Women Plant Seeds Film & Theater Culture Lifestyle Columns

No, Bridgerton does NOT need to address racism

Kristina ButtonMay 19, 2022April 22, 2022
Men (Non)Toxic Masculinity Current Events Culture Columns

A Man Died Today: Reactions to Kevin Samuels’ Legacy

Robert MonsonMay 12, 2022May 11, 2022
Books Theology The Church Women Christian Living Identity Justice

Editor’s Pick: Decolonized Discipleship (Book Excerpt)

Ekemini UwanMay 2, 2022April 22, 2022
Lifestyle

Trauma See, Trauma Do

faith n vazquezApril 26, 2022April 18, 2022
Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

In Search of Black Joy

Kristina ButtonApril 21, 2022April 18, 2022
The Church Identity Justice

Relief After the Insurrection

Charmie CurryApril 19, 2021April 18, 2021

The morning of January 7, 2021, was a relief. I know that relief isn’t what many people felt after witnessing the terrorizing display of white supremacy twenty-four hours earlier, but I was relieved. I was relieved because I knew that it would make it through the day confident that my faith community would see me, […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Fighting for Black Wombs: Conclusion

Kristina ButtonApril 16, 2021April 16, 2021

Read the Introduction, Part Two, and Part Three. During my fifth pregnancy, I contracted a rare infectious disease that made it necessary for me to abandon my plans for giving birth with a midwife at a birthing center and to find a doctor who would take me at seven months pregnant. You would think that […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Fighting for Black Wombs: Lacking Treatment

Kristina ButtonApril 15, 2021April 22, 2021

Read the Introduction and Part 2. For my first three pregnancies, I had the luxury of receiving care from a Black OB/GYN. My family relocated toward the end of my fourth pregnancy, which resulted in a struggle to find a care provider. Most of the practices that I contacted would not take me because I […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Fighting for Black Wombs: Struggling to be Seen

Kristina ButtonApril 14, 2021April 22, 2021

According to the National Institute of Health, severe maternal morbidity (SMM) rates have nearly doubled over the past decade. The incidence of SMM was 166% higher for Black women than white women from 2012 to 2015. To be clear, it is racism—not race—that impacts prenatal care and maternal outcomes.  This post is part of a […]

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Pass the Mic

PTM: Black Liturgies with Cole Riley

The WitnessApril 13, 2021April 12, 2021

This conversation is like water for the soul, fam.  Today’s episode features the incredible Cole Riley, the creator and writer of Black Liturgies— a project seeking to integrate the truths of Black dignity, lament, rage, justice, and rest into written prayers. Black Liturgies creates a space of sacred welcome. A space of dignity, lament, truth-telling, […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Fighting for Black Wombs: An Introduction

Kristina ButtonApril 12, 2021April 13, 2021

Black Maternal Health Week is April 11-17 each year. Advocacy for Black maternal health should be a regular part of our advocacy work and not just during this designated time. The purpose of Black Maternal Health Week is to bring awareness to the systemic disparities stacked against Black women, center the voices and experience of […]

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Identity

Blackness isn’t exhausting; racism is

Manushka Gracia-DesgageApril 8, 2021April 6, 2021

“Being black is exhausting.” A common refrain heard from the voices of disconsolate Black people whenever we are dealing with an onslaught of white terrorism on Black souls and bodies. We say it instinctually. After we’ve engaged in all the scholarly discussions and intellectual gymnastics about racism, we get to the point where the pain […]

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Pass the Mic

PTM: Leave LOUD- Tyler Burns’ Story Part 2

The WitnessApril 6, 2021April 5, 2021

Leave LOUD: Tyler Burns with Greg Burns  This is a deep cut, y’all. A few weeks ago, you heard Tyler Burns tell his own #LeaveLoud story, but we couldn’t leave it there. As always, there’s more to the story.  Tyler invites his father, Greg Burns, onto the podcast to discuss being converted and trained in […]

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The Church Christian Living Justice

5 Signs That You Need to #LeaveLOUD

Ally HennyApril 5, 2021April 4, 2021

Black Christians often enter predominantly white or multiethnic churches hoping to participate in a spiritual community where the fullness of their identity in Christ is seen and nurtured. All too often, however, we end up contending with ignorance and insensitivity. We expend immeasurable amounts of emotional labor trying to educate our white siblings about how […]

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The Church Relationships/Family Identity

Resurrection Sunday in Alabama’s Black Belt

Christian CrawfordApril 3, 2021April 3, 2021

Have you ever attended a Black Baptist church in rural Alabama for Resurrection Sunday (Easter) before?  Since I was a little boy, my mother and I would travel from the Birmingham suburbia and go “back home,” where my grandparents live, joining relatives at a little country church for Resurrection Sunday. Home sits along Alabama’s Black […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Finding Restoration After Spiritual Trauma

Kristina ButtonApril 1, 2021April 1, 2021

I’ve been wrestling with something that I wish I would have done better a few years ago. I was in a season where I was trying to find a church after suffering through racial trauma and spiritual abuse in a white evangelical church. The problem is that I was searching for a new church without […]

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Pass the Mic

PTM: Leave LOUD: Ally Henny’s Story Part 2

Ally HennyMarch 29, 2021March 29, 2021

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:  The stories continue…After Jemar Tisby and Tyler Burns shared powerful episodes of their #LeaveLOUD experiences, it’s time to hear from our very own Ally Henny.  How is the Black Christian experience different in rural settings? Are multiethnic churches truly safe spaces for Black women? What happens when Black women #LeaveLoud? Ally had to […]

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The Church Christian Living

Easter Mourning

Ally HennyMarch 29, 2021March 30, 2021

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…” Isaiah 53:4 For the second straight year, my Holy Week began with driving by church to pick up our palms for Palm Sunday and receiving communion that was pre-packaged and pre-blessed. We will, Lord willing, get to worship in our church building on Easter (socially […]

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Relationships/Family Justice

Abuse and Accountability: An ethic of resistance

Cass AlbertMarch 27, 2021March 27, 2021

In her national bestseller Salvation: Black People and Love, author bell hooks says, “We can not effectively resist domination if our efforts to create meaningful, lasting personal and social change are not grounded in a love ethic.”  Effectively resist domination… not grounded in a love ethic. When I read these words, I stumbled, seeing the […]

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Justice

Imago Dei: Black Women and Girls’ Lives Matter

Carla C. LeeMarch 25, 2021March 25, 2021

Black women and Black girls are not valued in American society. Our voices are marginalized. We are often invisible. Even as we make strides in the political arena and fight for democracy, our contributions threaten to go unseen. When injustice threatens the Black community as a whole, the injustice committed against Black women is often […]

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The Church Christian Living Identity

Candy-coated Poison: Rejecting Spoon-fed Religion

Joanna Cyrus-DavidMarch 23, 2021March 22, 2021

You learn a lot by feeding a child. They are creatures of habit with sensitive yet non-discriminatory palates. Yesterday’s breakfast is easily today’s breakfast . . . and lunch . . . and dinner—if the temperature is right.  A young child has little control over what they are fed. Even more true is that a […]

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Pass the Mic Podcasts The Witness

PTM: Ally Henny’s Story Part 1

Ally HennyMarch 22, 2021January 19, 2022

The stories continue…After Jemar Tisby and Tyler Burns shared powerful episodes of their #LeaveLOUD experiences, it’s time to hear from our very own Ally Henny.  How is the Black Christian experience different in rural settings? Are multiethnic churches truly safe spaces for Black women? What happens when Black women #LeaveLoud? Ally had to courageously confront […]

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Black Women Plant Seeds Columns

Her Name is Tessica

Kristina ButtonMarch 18, 2021March 17, 2021

I know that Tessica’s story is fading from the headlines and that there isn’t as much discussion about her as there was a month ago, but the story of how Black women are treated in society isn’t new. The inability to treat warmly, show regard for, or show tenderness to the very Black women who […]

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The Church Justice

Burn It All: Refusing to Reconcile with Compromise

Robert CallahanMarch 16, 2021March 16, 2021

The division caused by racism in American Christianity reminds me of the plot of the novel Lord of the Flies. The story goes like this (spoiler alert – seriously, you’ve had 67 years): Marooned on an island without adult guidance, a group of prim and proper British boys turns nearly-feral. They create a tribalistic civilization […]

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Pass the Mic

PTM: Leave LOUD- Tyler Burns’ Story

The WitnessMarch 15, 2021March 15, 2021

Another one…After Jemar Tisby’s courageous #LeaveLOUD story last week, Tyler Burns is up next to share his own journey.  How do you overcome years of Christian Education that makes you question your Black identity? What can our lives look like when we embrace a vision for what it means to be Christ-following and Black-centered? For […]

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