Let’s Talk with Local Activist Shevone Torres, an anti-racist and community-builder based in Maple Shade, founder of Imperfect Village, and a prominent voice in BLM NJ. Shevone inherited activism; her grandmother was involved in the groundbreaking Mount Laurel Fair Housing court cases. Today, Shevone works on a variety of efforts, and she’ll share some of her ideas and experiences with F/friends on Thursday 2 March at 7:30pm. Shevone will speak specifically to work she’s doing – and we can join – to ensure New Jersey continually improves the safety, equity and effectiveness of its policing, justice and carceral systems. We’ll be on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81587816369, or use meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Speaking Truths
Let’s Talk with Calvin Bell
Pennsauken, NJ, native Calvin Bell graduated from Moorestown Friends School in 2020 with an impressive roster of accolades, including a Yale Award for Community Engagement, the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, a White House visit as a video game innovator (for an app that enables residents to report environmental hazards, in English or Spanish, to local government), and a lead role in ‘The Drowsy Chaperone.’ At MFS, Calvin served on the Diversity Committee; today he’s a junior at Morehouse College, an historically Black college. He’ll join Moorestown Meeting’s Anti-Racism Committee to talk about his experiences at MFS, at Morehouse, and through many richly varied experiences of a young life. You are welcome to join us on Zoom, at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81587816369 or meeting ID 815 8781 6369.
Gratitude Everyday
A reflection on Beyond Complicity: Awakening Anti-Racist Intentions, a series Toward Racial Justice and Fearless Faithfulness. A called gathering took place on Nov. 18, when Mickleton Friends Meeting intentionally listened to Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, chapter 3, The Truth About the First Thanksgiving. The books author, sociologist James W. Loewen, presents examination of Eurocentric and mythologized views of American history.
From Loewen’s perspective, we examined our strong-hold on the belief that the American holiday, Thanksgiving, holds a place of welcome for all individuals and faiths, some of us able to accept that the holiday holds myths that continue to minimize Native Nations peoples. We compared various maps, exposing how “discovery” of empty lands might be shifted when simply compared to maps void of political boundaries and marked with cultural features of the peoples living in specific regions.
The self-examination of perspective called us to remain as open as possible toward being transformed as we walk out into the world as myth-busters, dis-clothed of defensive cloaks, speaking Truths. We walked away with unity that giving thanks is not bound to one day. Surrounded by light, blessings abound, and gratitude is rightly ordered, freely available to everyone, if and when one might choose to see and acknowledge.
Seekers are invited to visit Mickleton Friends; First Day (Sunday) meeting for worship begins at 10am; also open to the public, the next examination of Beyond Complicity: Awakening Anti-Racist Intentions will take place December 16, 2018, ~11:30, after rise of meeting and fellowship. We will listen to Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk, We Need to Talk About An Injustice paired with Martin Luther King, Jr’s Six Steps of Nonviolent Social Change.