Category: Empowerment
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Who Wants to Work For a World That’s Not Working With Us?
“I hate school,” says my 7-year-old almost every single day. “Oh really?” I ask with curiosity. “What do you hate about it? Tell me more,” I encourage even as I am continuing to make her food for lunch and pack her things to send her to the very place that she has just told me…
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Bias By Us: How Our Unconscious Programs Us to Harm the Other
Black, White, or Other? “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” Being Black and growing up in the South—between Virginia and Mississippi—with a name like Pedro Senhorinha Ramos Montero Silva brought in many unwelcomed experiences in my life. One of which was the othering…
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What Will You Build With Your Life?
This is Notre Dame. It took almost 200 years to complete. The architecture is nothing short of magnificent. Reflecting on what it took for this edifice to materialize, I was awestruck. Generations of people toiled. Whole families were born and died without ever seeing it finished. I imagine on that first day when the first…
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Artists Turn Chaos Into Culture
When I was six years old my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I wanted paint, a canvas, and an easel because I wanted to be an artist. Her response was that artists don’t make money. Instead she bought me a typewriter and told me I was going to…
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Do the INR (Individual Narrative Responsibility) Work
How often do you reflect on how much the stories you tell yourself impact your life? Personally, I think about it everyday. Because since I was a child, I have always been keenly aware of narrative dynamics. Consciously or unconsciously we all perceive ourselves as characters in a narrative. And how we locate ourselves in…
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Using Words to Listen to Silence
I’m currently reading this book, Ki-Asana Zen, written by my uncle, Vernon Kitabu Turner. Reading it, I am reminded how blessed I am for having mentors and that God is always looking out for me on my journey—mind, body, and soul. On my spiritual journey, I have never pursued anyone or anything apart from the…
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A Black Santa for White Christmas
Picture this. It is Christmas 1977. My mom and dad are arguing. I am 2. Somehow I know that I shouldn’t understand what is happening. But, yet I do. The final threads in the fabric of our family are snapping. My father is leaving. As he heads for the door, I feel an invisible tether…
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Counting It All As Loss: The Faithful Choice of Carlton D. Pearson
Ever since it was announced that Bishop Carlton Pearson was ill, people have been commenting on the implications of his legacy in the Christian Church. There have been debates and panel discussions, Youtube personalities have been throwing out vitriolic commentaries and random people were wishing ill of him as if it was earning them some…
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History is Not a Competition
We are often led to believe that everything in our society is a competition. But some things aren’t. And history is one of them.
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The Time to Shine is Always Now
The time to shine is always now. If people are surprised to see me rapping now, there’s more to the backstory you don’t know. A lot of people don’t know this. But my mom was basically a part of early hip hop. She used to be called JoSi, The Queen of Rhymes and she had…
The Roofless Church 