BRSCC 2016 - 2024
The Seventh Annual Conference
Beyond The Noise: Storytellings of Black Spirituality
“This is our story, this is our song”
In order to start envisioning an equitable society for people of African descent, the Seventh Annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference focused on storytelling as a vehicle for racial collective healing and restorative justice. Storytelling was used to highlight the nuances of Black voices and the experiences they carry through systems of white supremacy while generating moments of radical joy and beauty through the framework of African oral traditions. The committee aimed to deconstruct and reconstruct narratives by inviting in-depth listening, candid sharing, and radical imagining in order to better grasp the therapeutic value of storytelling. The role that spirituality plays in our efforts to achieve racial harmony and justice was examined. Whiteness has created an image of Black people that aims to marginalize and narrate not only Black bodies but also Black history and Black stories. But we want to reclaim, restore, and retell our own narratives beyond the white noise. "This is our story; this is our song."
The goal of the conference was to explore how spirituality evades the religious sector alongside the mundane. Critical examination of how spirituality manifests itself both overtly and implicitly in the daily lives of activists, artists, clergy persons, and public leaders was done through a think-tank paradigm. Participants pursued a multifaceted understanding of spirituality in general and its role in the pursuit of justice work. Through stories, theory engaged in practical work to create a call to action that grounds the lived experiences of Black people in liberation struggles for justice and equality.
BRSCC 2023
The Sixth Annual Conference
Rooted
The Sixth Annual Conference theme was "Rooted," and centered Black, African, and Indigenous ways of knowing around wellness and mental health. Panels focused on spirituality, mental health, and wellness practices that are rooted and centered on Black, African, and Indigenous ways of conceptualizing and practicing healing. Panels included “Iré Ariku: Grounding in Spiritual Health in Afrikan Diasporic Spiritual-Religious Traditions.”; “Rethinking Study as Healing: Student Panel”; “Healthcare Equity and Inclusion” ; and a AfroCuban Folklore (Yoruba) / Orisha Dance Technique Class.
Discussions centered around mental health and wellness disparities in black and brown communities globally, African and Indigenous ways of healing around the world through dance and other ritual practices, as well as interfaith, intergenerational, and interdisciplinary dialogue on healing, trauma, and spiritual care.
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​The Sixth Annual conference served as a connector between the academy and the communities in which we serve. Each panel illuminated and drew from deep wells rooted within us.
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BRSCC 2022
The Fifth Annual Conference
B.L.A.C.K. (Black Liberation, Activism, Community, Kinship)
The Black Religion, Spirituality & Culture Fifth Annual Conference aimed to create a safe and meaningful space for B.I.P.O.C. cultural-heritages and traditions of being and becoming. We facilitated much-needed conversations around the global militarization of police and police brutality against Black and Brown folx across the African Diaspora. Participants engaged in high-performance dance, movement, listening to panelists expand on the dance traditions of Vodou, Regla de Ocha-Ifá, Candomblé, Umbanda, and Traditional Ifá. The panels fleshed out Indigenous and African ways of being in community. The panel also explored the dire need to come together as change agents to radically impact academia and our communities positively. Other panels discussed the work being done by HDS alumni and scholarship undertaken by current students from various institutions.
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We hold dear the theme, B.L.A.C.K. (Black Liberation, Activism, Community, and Kinship), as the call of the hour. The Fifth Annual Conference served to build a bridge between the known and the unknown to bring our voices and lived experiences to the forefront in a society where our narratives are deemed unworthy, invalid, and invisible. We commit to disrupting space as claiming our narratives as lived theories and analysis.
BRSCC 2021
BRSCC 2020
The Fourth Annual Conference
Black Womxn At The Center
The fourth-annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference was held February 27th and 28th, 2020 with the theme Black Womxn at the Center, highlighting Black Womxn doing praxis-driven work in academia, ministry, and the arts, all broadly-defined, and acknowledging self-identified Womanists or Black Feminists doing work that centers folx at the margins.The conference also included current students to present resonant work in addition to panels that brought in academics and activists. The panels included Centering Healing, A Way forward: a discussion with womxn survivors of incarceration, Black Imagination and the Beyond, Black Feminism and Womanisn in the Academy, and Beyond HDS: Black Womxn in Action. Invited panelists included Stacey Borden, Sequoria Dickerson, Dr. Cheryl Giles, Yeshi Milner, Aysha Upchurch, Dr. Monique Moultrie, Dr. Wylin D. Wilson, Chandra Plowden, Taylor Stewart, sadada jackson, Dr. Gloria White-Hammond, Naikia G. Brown, Vanessa Lindley, Nordia Bennett, and Bridget Webster. Students' presentations included Naikia G. Brown, Vanessa Lindley, Nordia Bennett, and Bridget Webster who have written scholarship from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds that emphasize the importance of Black Womxn in spirituality and justice. The Sankofa Award was given to Jamie Johnson-Riley.
BRSCC 2019
The Third Annual Conference
Blackness At The Margins
The third-annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference was held from February 28th to March 1st, 2019 with the definitive theme Blackness at the Margins where the planning committee pushed for recognition of the global and spatial movement of Blackness by stating, “We recognize the depth and multiplicity within which Blackness exists and moves through this world, and as a consequence we seek to understand, to bring to light, as many voices and representations black religions, cultures, and spiritualities hold. We want to harness and cultivate cross movement dialogue, to sit in conversation with one another across religious and spiritual lines that do not often come together at the intersection of Black identity." The conference also included current students to present resonant work in addition to panels that brought in academics and activists. The panels included Black Panther, Diaspora, and the Queering of the Black Imaginary, and Revolutionary Art, Healing, and the Politics of Change. Invited panelists included Dr. Kyrah Daniels, Tony Van der Meer, Nikki Young, Michael Brandon McCormack, Aric Flemming, and Kendra Rosalie Hicks. Students' presentations included N’Kosi Oates (Ph.D at Brown), Brenton Miles Brock (Ph.D at Howard), and Steve Nunez (Ph.D at UConn) presented their research work. The Sankofa Award was given to Dr. Cheryl J. Giles.
BRSCC 2018
The Second Annual Conference
Activism. Community. Scholarship.
The second-annual Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference shifted to a two-day conference that was held on March 22 to the 23, 2018. The conference began to take a thematic approach, weaving together Activism, Community and Scholarship, while highlighting scholarship itself as a transformative practice. The conference also included current students to present resonant work in addition to panels that brought in academics and activists. The panels included Black Religion and Social Activism, Faith and Incarceration, Religion, Sexuality, and Queerness, Black Religion and Culture, Religion and Wellness, Power in the Black Religious Space, and Navigating Identity. Invited panelists included Dr. Brad Braxton, Rev. Dr. Gloria White-Hammond, Karlene Griffiths-Sekou, Rev. Nikia Roberts, Edyson Julio, Rev. Ashley Lipscomb, Candice Benbow, Rev. Brandon Crowley, Dr. Kyrah Daniels, Myisha Cherry, Kameelah Rashad, Dr. Carlyle Stewart III, Dr. Funlayo Wood, Imam Khalil Abdur-Rashid, and Janan Graham Russell. The Sankofa Award was given to Dr. Gloria White-Hammond.
BRSCC 2016
The First Annual Conference
Black Religion, Spirituality & Culture
The first ever Black Religion, Spirituality, and Culture Conference was held on November 4th, 2016. The conference is a result of the passionate vision of several students of African descent, endeavoring to find new ways to increase the representation of scholarship present at HDS, spearheaded by chair of the Conference Planning Committee/co-organizer Taylor Stewart. The day began with a spirited morning keynote address delivered in an overfull Andover Chapel where soon academic scholars, faith leaders, and social justices and non-profit leaders from around the country to campus would engage in dialogue in four panels. The panels included Black Religion and Religious Thought, Black Religion and Culture, Religion and Social Justice, and Black Spirituality. The evening closed with the Sankofa Award was given to Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton.