Smells Like Decolonial Thinking
A countryside view outside Florence, Tuscany, Italy, during my brother-in-law’s wedding. (October 2025. Photo credit: Erick Lashley II)
Kendall Dooley is a community development practitioner, scholar, and co-founder of BLK South, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reclaiming and revitalizing historic Black neighborhoods in the South. With a background in Criminal Justice and Missional Theology, Kendall brings a deep commitment to improving the quality of life in under-resourced communities through holistic development, cultural preservation, and creative place-making. His work is shaped by his passion for justice, Black history, and fostering spaces where communities can flourish on their own terms. Learn More
Decolonial thinking, praxis, and theologies encourage us to expand and recover other ways of knowing and learning. Art and nature are two important examples of this. Check out this song, poem, painting series, and these facts about the mycelium network, and notice what stirs in you.
A P O E M
(Written by me)
“Always another way calling out
Wanting us to remember there is another way
Not a way that involves our masters tools
But our way
A way that has truly never left us
but is in our bones
In our songs, in our food, our clothes”
A S O N G
A P A I N T I N G
T H E M Y C E L I U M N E T W O R K
Reflection Questions:
Which medium—song, poem, visual art, or nature—stirs you most deeply, and why do you think that is?
Where did you feel resonance in your body rather than clarity in your mind?
R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G
