Blog
A collection of weekly reflections written by BLK South community and board members.
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Every Shut Eye Ain't Sleep and Every Good Bye Ain't Gone.
Every shut eye ain't sleep, and every goodbye ain't gone.” Through the wisdom of Grandma Bea, this reflection explores the power of discernment and hope, reminding us that things are not always as they seem. From overlooked voices to communities the world has written off, we are invited to look beyond appearances, trust that God is still at work, and remember that what the world buries, God often plants.
Daylighting Courage Creek
What might it mean to bring our buried courage into the light? In Daylighting Courage Creek, Howard Thurman’s image of an “underground river” meets the practice of uncovering streams hidden beneath our cities. A walk along a recovering creek becomes a reflection on the quiet springs of confidence that sustain us through difficult times. It also becomes an invitation: to make room for those springs to surface in our own lives and in one another’s, then join together in the work of justice, mercy, and care for the places we call home. What could flourish if we kept a thousand little springs of action flowing?
When History Rhymes
History may not repeat itself, but its rhythms often sound familiar. In this reflection, Kendall considers what it means to become “poets of history”—people who recognize the patterns echoing from the past and discern how old harms can reappear beneath new language and forms.
Drawing from the history of Durham’s Hayti community and BLK South’s work in the Grant Street neighborhood, Kendall reflects on the courage required to name these familiar rhythms. He invites us to imagine new ones that can help mend historical wounds and lead us toward more just, healing, and humane ways of living together.
Smells Like Decolonial Thinking
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.
Overlooked, Forgotten and Untold Stories
“This country has an abnormal obsession with blood, especially the blood spilled of innocent lives who prematurely become pummeled bodies, so we commemorate tragedies but fail to disrupt the bloodletting systems. We also love dead heroes, well some of them, despite often hating them while they are living.
In this season, it will take many of us taking action where we are to ensure that no matter how many times we have to cross the bridge toward justice we will stay in the fight. Our names may not appear in history books, someone else may get all of the credit but building a pathway to liberation, fighting for justice is the real work of saints, sheroes and heroes.”
A Radical Practice of the Everyday
“If it is not possible to disengage from the political affairs of our country, and I contend it is not because we make political decisions everyday, then what lies ahead for those who seek to embody the way of “doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God?”
When I awoke on the morning following the election, and the results of it were confirmed, my spirit was spiked with a combination of grief and fear. The grief was for people I care about, the fear was for people I care about. However, it was not so much about a fear of what is to come for the marginalized, poor, and oppressed among us under a Trump presidency (although I fear that, too!). Instead, it was a grief and fear directed at the ways…”