Faith in Action

Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary, author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Enduring Legacy of Injury and Healing, addresses the residual impacts of trauma on African Descendants in the Americas. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can use the strengths we have gained to heal.

The book has been praised by Randall Robinson, Bill Cosby, Al Sharpton, and many more. Susan Taylor, Editorial Director of Essence Magazine says that “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is a master work…Her book is the balm we need to heal ourselves and our relationships. It is the gift of wholeness.” Adelaide Sanford, Vice Chancellor of the Board of Regents for the State of New York states that “Dr. Joy Leary’s mesmerizing, riveting book is vital reading for our time…With Dr. Leary’s potent words we can and will heal.”

WHEN: Wednesday, May 7, 2008
TIME: 7:00 PM
WHERE: Clarence Mitchell School of Engineering Building
Morgan State University
1700 East Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore MD 21251
ADMISSION: FREE and Open to the Public
For Further Information: Charlotte St. Pierre at 443.885.3006 or Ray Winbush at 443.722.0783

For those who were not able to attend either of the Barack Obama rallies here in Maryland yesterday, here is a clip from his speech in Baltimore yesterday. I was one in the number as 13,000 people cheered him on.

You can view the rest of this video and all of my other vids on my youtube page.

Here’s video from the Obama Rally at the University of Maryland College Park. Thanks to Chip Dizard from Absolute Presence for providing this great piece.

This past Saturday, I was blessed to be recognized at the Kingdom Ambassador Awards which was put on by No Walls Productions, LLC at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Baltimore.

According to Brian and La’Wanda Cook (proprietors of No Walls Productions):

The Kingdom Ambassador Award was birthed from a vision that we received to support and encourage the body of Christ. With the negativity that the body of Christ has received through various incidents, we feel a need to counter-act it by publicly and formally acknowledging those leaders that have gone beyond the call of duty in our churches, communities and lives. Our theme scripture was inspired by Matt 11:12 …and the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

The following pastors were recognized at this very classy, top-shelf event: Pastor Terry Allen (God’s Perfect Will Ministries), Pastor Delman Coates (Mt. Ennon Baptist Church), Bishop Aubry Harley (Deeper Life Ministries), Pastor Ruby Prideaux (Blessed Trinity Church of Deliverance), and Dr. Joan Sanders (El-Bethel Prayer Tabernacle).

The event was hosted by a fellow Morgan State Alum, Micheline Bowman from Fox 5 DC. (She runs a site called My Voice DC.Com)

Thank you Brian, La’Wanda and your entire team for the wonderful event you put on Saturday night. While I’m not used to being acknowledged in that type of forum (I must brush up on my acceptance speech!) I must admit that positive acknowledgment has its place. I am striving to be great and as Dr. King said, we can all be great by serving others. That, indeed, is my goal.

I believe that it was Bro. Sitawi Jahi - a faithful “Faith in Actioner” (regular visitor/supporter of my blog) that first put me on to Pastor Ray Hagins out of St. Louis, Missouri.

After Jahi put the name out there in the comment section and forwarded me an email, I thought I’d check out this Hagins guy and see what he was all about. It turns out that Hagins isn’t just some guy - he’s a Master Teacher and Conscious Preacher who preaches a challenging message about engaging God, the Bible, and the Christian Faith with “new eyes.”

My seminary journey at Virginia Union and and self-imposed aggressive reading schedule since school has blessed me to be exposed to a healthy portion of what Hagins preaches. He proclaims a challenging and unsettling word that many “sunday morning church folk” would choke on rather quickly. Hagins speaks on the origins of the Bible, Constatine’s impact on the Faith, the Kemetic influence of the scriptures (especially the Old Testament), and many other intriguing topics.

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“Without the African connection we are a disjointed people…begging for entry into somebody else’s house”

The Institute for Urban Research will host scholar, Dr. Marimba Ani, author of Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior, on Saturday, December 1, 2007 6PM - 10PM at Morgan State University’s Engineering Building Auditorium.

The long anticipated 2nd Edition of Yurugu marks a milestone in the long career of Professor Ani’s contributions in the deconstruction of western thought and behavior.

Marimba Ani holds a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, and the MA Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School University.  Professor Ani has taught at Hunter College in the Department of Black and Puerto Rican Studies for the past 25 years and was a colleague of the eminent Black historian, Dr. John Henrik Clarke.

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This past Friday, I attended the MICA Black Panther Rank & File Symposium featuring Sherry Brown, Connie Felder, Dr. Judson Jeffries, Marshall “Eddie” Conway, and Kathleen Cleaver.  The panel discussion was hosted by Marc Steiner. 

I was a member of the planning committee for this symposium and was a bit concerned at first that the exhibit would be too academic.  While the acquisition of knowledge is still a primary interest of mine; I am no longer interested in gaining knowledge just for the sake of saying I know something.  Knowing without Doing is irrelevant.  Thus the planning committee was initially a concern, but I was glad to see other activists invited to the planning table - that helped assure me that radical and revolutionary aims would not be isolated and sanitized out of the symposium altogether. 

There were a few highlights of course.  First, having Kathleen Cleaver, former wife of Eldridge Cleaver, on the panel was exciting.  Ms. Cleaver has a certain “fieryness” about her after all these years that provided some insight into the vigor of the innerworkings of the Black Panther Party. 

 [NOTE: This picture is a powerful one.  I am standing in between two of the most revolutionary women on the planet.  On the left, Sista Yaa from Solvivaz Nation and on the right Kathleen Cleaver.]

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Sunday was a long day for me - as most Sundays are.  I attended 7:30AM service and then had to go preach at a church in West Baltimore for their 10:30AM service.  To close out the day we had a 4PM service back at my home church.  Like I said - a long day. (especially when you don’t eat anything, but oatmeal and grapes)

But in between the 10:30AM and 4PM service I was on the program for the No More Murders Rally at the War Memorial Plaza.  Justice Maryland - the organization who planned the event - asked me to start and end the rally in prayer.  I was encouraged by that because I truly believe that a spiritual revolution is just as important as a social one.  We need to realign ourselves with God - especially in this country which often places the mighty dollar above God.  It was my privilege to lead those who gathered in an ecumenical prayer.

The plan initially was to have 240 some people laying on the ground in front of the War Memorial (ironic that we convened at the WAR memorial in a desperate cry for PEACE) to give a human face to the often innocuous daily reports of the murder rate.  The rain throughout last weekend prevented the “die in”, but we stood with our numbers nonetheless.

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ACTION ALERT!:

Education funding at risk

Governor O’Malley has proposed budget cuts to education to offset the deficit.
    * Baltimore City-  $29 million

    *Statewide-        $207 million

WHAT $29 million means to City schools:

-$350.83 per student lost
-10 months of school transportation costs
-500 teacher’s salaries

        10/29/07 5:30 p.m.

JOIN US IN ANNAPOLIS on the first day of session to fight cuts to Thornton on October 29, 2007
Buses leave BCPSS @ 5:30 p.m.

( North Avenue – East lot) and leave Annapolis at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Please reserve a seat by contacting/leaving a message (with your phone number) for Edie at PCAB’s office 410-396-3138 or JaCina Stanton at 410-889-8550, ext. 134.

I’ve been encouraged as of late with the increasing number of organizations that are attempting to address the issue of violence in the Black community.  Organizations like the Zero Murder Rate Movement, the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP, and many others are devoting energy to finding a fix for this problem.  The latest group to address it is Justice Maryland.  They are holding a press conference today and on Sunday they will have a No More Murders Rally and “die in” at the War Memorial Plaza downtown.  In an effort to give a human face to the murder rate, more than 200 people will lay their bodies down symbolizing the number of people who have been killed in Bmore. 

The community is rising up to challenge this evil in our communities.  Senator Larry Young of the Larry Young Morning Show on 1010AM is continuing his on-air community organizing practices by calling together a delegation of men to address issues in our community as well.  They are preparing to take a trip to Philadelphia to meet with the men who organized a 1,000 Black men volunteer force to address the violence in their community.

I pray that this is the spark that helps propel men of African descent in this city to become more active in the streets and in the lives of our youth.  We don’t need more police.  We need more men.

While 1,000 men is a great number (the organizers in Philly originally set a goal of recruiting 10,000 men), at this point, I’d be happy with 100 committed men focused around a specific strategy to address crime and violence in Baltimore in a holistic way. (holistic meaning - as we confront the violence in the streets we also confront the violence in the suites that comes in the form of unjust policies, bad laws, and systemic oppression)