Black Women’s Stories with Dr. Charisse Gillett
This week in a final conversation in our series with Dr. Charisse Gillett, we invite you to share our delight in Black women’s stories. Today Dr. Gillett, president of Lexington Theological Seminary, reads from That Little Girl. She reads for us a story about arriving late to her Grandmother’s funeral. Then she tells about a surprise she receives after the service.
Following the book reading, Charisse and I talk about the critical importance of making space for Black women’s stories. Together we hosted a half-day writing retreat for women of color in July. More than a dozen women gathered, wrote, and talked about the process of writing. They worked on projects of their own design, and they supported each other to speak their truths.
We are hosting the next Mini Writing Retreat for Women of Color on December 5. Learn more about it. And register today!
Mini Writing Retreat for Women of Color
More with Dr. Gillett
Hear more of my conversations with Dr. Charisse Gillett. This month she’s shared with us about the roll call of gratitude, encouragement and hope for our vocations, and what went into writing her memoir. I think everything she shared is an inspiration and I hope you will not miss it!
The Gifts and Joy of AAR
I’ve just returned from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). Meeting together with the Society for Biblical Literature, it is among the largest gatherings of religion nerds, bible junkies, and theology geeks in the world. One of the huge gifts of this gathering is to hear the voices, stories, carefully crafted arguments, and provocative ideas of scholars in person. At night there are parties, catching up, laughing, and yes, even dancing (thank you, Wabash Center)! Going into the meeting is a little like going into a vortex. You can lose all sense of time and place. (Are we in Boston?) You find yourself just going to the next thing, and the next thing, on your schedule. The experience a lot like the proverbial drinking from a firehose.
Even in the dystopian times we are living through, I experience both hope and joy being in solidarity with my fellow nerds and geeks at AAR. Why? Passion for justice fills their presentations. Splendid ideas about teaching and writing run through our conversations. Lives of commitment – forged in spite of the grinding violence of institutions – inspire me. Decades of friendship help me feel both grounded and willing to risk something for change.
Sure I could spend a whole post criticizing all that is wrong with higher ed, everything that is broken, all the people who are careless or harmful with their power. But this morning, as I turn toward naming my thanks, I’m too tired to tell you how bad it all is. I only have energy for telling you what is good, what inspires, and who offers hope.
Leaning into the Good
Tremendous resources for doing, saying, and leading for good, remain within reach. By character and training, professors and researchers rely on the powers of analysis, critique, and deconstruction. We work in spaces like universities, and organizations like AAR, which expect a critical voice. As a profession, we need could use on our intellectual muscles more often for seeing and saying what is good and what is presently working.
There is so much analysis and frustration with the current dystopia. Can we who study the world, the church, humans and history, put our thoughts and analysis toward constructive proposals for change? Inspire courage for acting with the good in mind? Speak truth to power without collapsing emotionally and intellectually when the blowback comes?
Colleagues in theological education that I admire most, have this kind of moral fortitude. They don’t just see problems, but also envision responses and interventions. They have a vision for a good life alongside a lament about the problems. I believe it takes both, insisting on holding them together to qualify as meaningful scholarship.
I’m grateful for practical theologians, scholars working from minoritized social locations, women in higher ed who continue to be dismissed and passed over, who each find the moral agency and power to speak up. To make critiques and also offer solutions. There’s a time for both, of course, and it takes judgment and discernment to know what the situation demands.
If you are working to find your voice and offer it publicly, I hope you’ll consider joining me for a retreat in the coming months.
Mini Writing Retreats
Choose the images or buttons below to learn about the space we are making for you to hone your habits and craft of writing. Pastors, professors, writers of all kinds, you are invited!
