Freedom Road Podcast: Recent Episodes
Freedom Road LLC
This podcast is a forum for experiences that build common understanding, common commitment and common action. It is produced each month by FreedomRoad.us, and hosted by Lisa Sharon Harper.
On this episode we are joined by Rev. Dr. Michael Nabors, Senior Pastor of the Historic Second Baptist Church of Evanston, IL. Recently, Second Baptist Church has become a leading faith center in America in facilitating Race Talk Solidarity Circles in local communities. Since 2019, Dr. Nabors has been part of the Steering Committee for Evanston Reparations, the first municipal reparations program in the United States, allocating 10 million dollars to Black Evanstonians to repair historical damages due to racism.
We invited Rev. Dr. Nabors to speak with us because the bulk of truth-telling and reparations work happening in the U.S. today is taking place on a local level. Dr. Nabors is doing that work. We need to know how his community is doing it, so that we can begin to engage the process in our own communities.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/reparations
On this episode we are joined by Dr. Terence Lester, PhD, author of several books, including his most recent, All God’s Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity.
We invited Terence to speak with us because his book, All God’s Children offers practical advice for the next generations of faith communities that understand in order to move forward, they have to look back.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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www.mahoganybooks.com/9781514005958
On this episode we are joined by John Blake, award winning journalist at CNN and author of the celebrated book, More Than I Imagined: What A Black Man Discovered About The White Mother He Never Knew.
We invited John to speak with us because – HIS STORY. OMG. And the way he tells it. OMG. You must know about it and you must read it.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Thread or Insta Lisa @lisasharper or to Freedom Road @freedomroad.us. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to freedomroad.substack.com. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706045/more-than-i-imagined-by-john-blake/
On this episode we are joined by Andre Henry, author of All the White Friends I Couldn’t Keep, cohost of the Hope and Hard Pills Podcast, local LA-based activist and singer/songwriter/producer. His work has been featured in The Nation, The New Yorker, New York’s Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and Super Bowl LVI.!
Andre was invited to speak with us because he understands joy! And he understands the power of the arts to bring hope and vision and health—and we need some of that. So, in these summer months, amid historic indictments, historic environmental hazards, political targeting of everyone who isn’t a white male...
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet to Lisa @LisaSHarper or to Freedom Road @FREEDOMROADUS. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to The Truth Is... and Freedom Road. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/673889/all-the-white-friends-i-couldnt-keep-by-andre-henry/
American Psychological Association Study: Racial discrimination and telomere shortening among African Americans: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study - psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fhea0000832
On this episode, we are joined by Rev. Gail Song Bantum, Lead Pastor of Quest Church, which recently voluntarily cut ties with its denomination—the Evangelical Covenant Church—because of its hard right turn on LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
Pastor Gail was invited to speak with us today, because she is an eye witness to a profound come-to-Jesus moment taking place right now inside of white evangelical denominations. She posted her letter to the denomination online. Lisa read it. We are going to talk about it.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet to Lisa @LisaSHarper or to Freedom Road @FREEDOMROADUS. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to The Truth Is... and Freedom Road. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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This is a special presentation of an interview with Lisa Sharon Harper on TALKIN' POLITICS & RELIGION WITHOUT KILLIN' EACH OTHER. Here are the show notes on this episode from our friends at TP&R:
"In this conversation with renowned speaker, writer, activist and artist, Lisa Sharon Harper, we discuss Lisa's own genealogy, which she painstakingly researched for her 2022 book FORTUNE: How Race Broke My Family and the World and How to Repair It All, and how doing the work of genealogy is doing the work of history. We also got into some theology! In particular, we explored a profound reading of the first chapters of Genesis. Spoiler alert: I love when Lisa said, 'It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this is not science!' The truths communicated in Genesis are much more profound than the reductionist reading of some of our young earth creationist friends. That leads us to explore the concept of TOV and TOV M'OD. And we went on to discuss what it will take to repair what race broke in the world."
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet to Lisa @LisaSHarper or to Freedom Road @FREEDOMROADUS. We're also on Substack! So be sure to subscribe to The Truth Is... and Freedom Road. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
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This month we are joined by Michelle Ferrigno Warren, President and CEO of Virago Strategies, a consulting group that provides strategic direction and project management for civic engagement campaigns alongside communities affected by racial and economic injustice. Michelle's new book, JOIN THE RESISTANCE: STEP INTO THE GOOD WORK OF KINGDOM JUSTICE, offers a roadmap into the movement for so many of you who are looking around and saying how can I help make difference?
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet Lisa @LisaSHarper or Freedom Road at @FREEDOMROADUS. And, keep sharing the podcast with your friends and networks and letting us know what you think!
https://michelleferrignowarren.com/ https://michelleferrignowarren.com/join-the-resistance/ https://twitter.com/lisasharper https://twitter.com/FreedomRoadus www.instagram.com/lisasharper/
This month we are in conversation with Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Brandon Wrencher. Dr. Alexia, a national leader in faith engagement in immigrant justice for decades, is the dean of Centro Latino and associate professor of integral mission and global transformation at Fuller Theological Seminary. Brandon Wrencher is a minister, community organizer, teacher and facilitator whose work falls in the intersection of decolonizing church, contemplative activism and local presence to build beloved communities. www.fuller.edu/centro-latino/ www.goodneighbormovement.org/leadership www.instagram.com/goodneighbormovement/ twitter.com/lisasharper www.instagram.com/lisasharper/
This month Lisa Sharon Harper is joined by Kamal Bell, founding owner of Sankofa Farms. The goal of Sankofa Farms is to create a sustainable food source for ethnic minorities in both rural and urban areas located in Durham and Orange County, North Carolina. We invited Kamal to come speak with us because his work offers a way forward toward repair of what racial hierarchy broke in the world. www.sankofafarmsllc.com/ www.instagram.com/sankofafarms/ twitter.com/lisasharper www.instagram.com/lisasharper/
This month we are joined by Robert Draper, New York Times Magazine political journalist to discuss his most recent article: “The Arizona Republican Party’s Anti-Democracy Experiment”. Apart from being a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and Washington Journal, among others, Draper is also the author of several books, including his most recent bombshell, To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq (2000). In Robert Draper's essay on the Arizona GOP’s Anti-Democracy Experiment, he goes under the hood and explains how it all happened. And given the fact that we are about a month away from one of the most consequential elections in American history, we had to get Robert’s take on how we understand what’s going down and the stakes for our nation. www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/magazine/arizona-republicans-democracy.html twitter.com/DraperRobert twitter.com/lisasharper
This month, we feature an episode from a new podcast featuring Freedom Road's Lisa Sharon Harper: The FOUR. You can check out other episodes of The FOUR at thefour.black. Few have worked harder to cut and mend the ties between oppressor and oppressed than the one and only Ruby Nell Sales. The FOUR are honored to be joined by this iconic human rights activist, public theologian, and social critic. Ms. Sales’ long fight for freedom began in the 1960s with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC, at Tuskegee University, as a student freedom fighter in Lowndes County, Alabama. And it nearly got her assassinated. Jonathan Daniels, a white freedom worker from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, pulled Sales out of the line of fire. But Daniels was shot and killed. The assailant was acquitted by an all white jury. Ms. Sales witnesses profound strength in the American Black family, including her own. But for too many people of African descent, family stories were buried as a strategy to conquer us, and that toll remains to this day. It’s something TheFour’s Lisa Sharon Harper has taken on, documenting this nation’s history through a richly researched 10 generations of her family story—Black, white and Native American—in her newest book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World and How to Repair It All. Like Harper’s family story, Mama Ruby calls for repair through truth-telling, reparation and a measure of forgiveness to cut the ties that still bind.
This month, we feature an episode from a new podcast featuring Freedom Road's Lisa Sharon Harper: The FOUR. You can check out other episodes of The FOUR at thefour.black. Kristin Kobes Du Mez catapulted to the top of the best-seller list with her book, Jesus and John Wayne. A leading church historian, she joins The FOUR in a real eye-opener for the team. Kristin pulls back the curtain on conservative white evangelical America to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the white evangelical movement, what got us to January 6th, and where we may go next. In sum, at times The FOUR were left speechless.
This month, Americans will pause to commemorate the day when the last enslaved African Americans were notified that they had been set free, on June 19, 1865 (two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation). In this context, Lisa Sharon Harper and Cole Arthur Riley (author of This Here Flesh, creator @BlackLiturgies on Instagram) reflect on the impact of 400 years of subjugation on Black flesh and Black souls. Listen as Cole taps into the spirituality of her father and grandmother to find the resilience needed for the next leg of the journey.
At a moment when our nation stands at one of the greatest transition points in its history, the work of faith leaders of color is critical, yet often goes underfunded--leaving leadership pipelines that lack capacity to maximize their gifts, apply their grassroots knowledge and scale innovative strategies that could bless us all. Click into this convo with movement leaders of color, grounded in their faith and visioning new ways to fund America's transformation! Listen in as Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra (Academic Dean of Centro Latino, Fuller Seminary, alexiasalvatierra.com), Micky ScotBey Jones (The Justice Doula, mickyscottbeyjones.com) and Nikki Toyama-Szeto (Executive Director, Christians for Social Action, christiansforsocialaction.org) and host, Lisa Sharon Harper (president and founder, Freedom Road, https://freedomroad.us) dive into this timely and necessary conversation.
This month listen in as Lisa dives deep with two awe-inspiring leaders whose work is reshaping America. Dr. Ron Daniels is convenor of the National African American Reparations Commission and president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century. Dr. Gail Christopher recently retired from her role as Senior Advisor and Vice President at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she was the driving force behind the foundation's Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation initiative. In concert these leaders are calling the nation to wade into the waters of radical truth-telling and reparations in the U.S.
Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Chicago's historic Trinity United Church of Christ, and they discuss the twin passions for community advancement and social justice that are the foundations of his ministry
Listen in as Lisa talks with Michael-Ray Mathews (Deputy Director of Faith In Action, an international faith-rooted federation of community organizing networks). In the shadow of the 1/6 commemoration, Mathews says we all must go deeper. We must tap into the source that powered the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King called it, “Soul Force.”
Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, as they talk about the world's need for Fierce Love today
Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and Dr. Nicolette Louisssant, executive director of Healthcare Ready, as they sift through the fears and get to the facts about COVID-19 vaccination.
At a time when white nationalism is threatening democracy, itself, join Lisa Sharon Harper and Jen Hatmaker (New York Times best selling author and host of the For The Love podcast) in this special deep dive between friends on what it will take to repair what race broke in the world. Listen in as Lisa shares some early lessons gleaned from her forthcoming book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World And How To Repair It All (due for release Feb 8, 2022, Brazos).
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, author of Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. In the past Balmer has gestured toward the connection between race and The Religious Right. In Bad Faith, Balmer draws a direct, straight line. His book and this mind-blowing conversation shine clege-lights on the relationship between the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the Rise of the Religious Right. This episode is a must listen. Grab your pen and paper and take notes. The professor is in session!
Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, dives deep with Gen Zers Joseph Baah (17 years old) Janelle Addison (13 years old) and Jazzlyn Addison (10 years old), on how they are processing the events and traumas of the past year. These American siblings are processing the changes and struggles and they are ready to speak on what it means to be an American, they're hopes for society 20 years from now, education justice and the Supreme Court verdict on the Voting Rights Act, which had not yet been issued as of the time of this recording.
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and her guest Allyson McKinney Timm, founder and Executive Director at Justice Revival, as they discuss the history - and the future - of the Equal Rights Amendment
On January 6th, White Christian Nationalists stormed the U.S. Capitol and revealed the breadth and depth of the distortion of Christianity in the U.S.. Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, Rev. Jennifer Butler, author of Who Stole My Bible?: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny, and South African public theologian, Rev. Rene’ August, lean deeper into our sacred texts in a way that shines light on the path forward to meet our challenges today.
This month marks the 88th Anniversary of the opening of the very first Nazi concentration camp in the small town of Dachau. For five years the neo-Nazi movement in the U.S. gained ground during the 2016 Election cycle and under the Trump administration. On January 6, 2021, when white nationalists attempted an insurrection, Nazi language was scrawled across t-shirts and on banners. Marginalized communities across the country were stunned by what we saw. Given Jews' serial experience of expulsion and genocide, it is arguable that no group felt more of an existential threat on that day.
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper and guests, Rabbi Sharon Brous (IKAR) and Rabbi Jill Jacobs (T'ruah) as they engage in this transparent, vulnerable, mind-blowing conversation that leans into critical questions that we all must understand in this current moment: What is anti-Semitism? What are its roots? How do we recognize it when it is in the room? And what can we do about it?
The world recently watched white nationalists scale the walls of the US Capitol Building to attempt an insurrection; killing 6 people, including 3 police officers. The world watched as 147 GOP members of Congress affirmed the lie that fueled the insurrection. The world watched as scores of GOP Senators voted not to even hear the evidence against the one man most responsible for the violence and the lies. Where do we go from here? Writing months before his passing, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr tells us exactly what happened on January 6, 2021 as he charts the path for America’s reformation. Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and guest, Dr. Drew Hart, launch a six-week national study of Dr. King's book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, in this special episode of Freedom Road Podcast.
For a deeper dive, join the National Book Study here: https://freedomroad.us/downloads/national-book-study-where-do-we-go-from-here-by-rev-dr-martin-luther-king/
In the final dark days of 2020, six presidents of Southern Baptist Seminaries issued publicly condemned Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality; forbidding the subjects from being taught at their institutions. Join host Lisa Sharon Harper on Freedom Road with special guests: Dr. Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro (Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality scholar), Marlena Graves (evangelical scholar and activist), Dr. Drew Hart (professor of Theology, Race and Justice), Dr. Dennis Edwards (Pastor and New Testament scholar), Dr. Chris Williamson (Pastor of a multi-racial church in Nashville, TN and author). Dive deep, lean in and listen as these evangelical scholars and leaders of color set the record straight.
Cast out in a boat without oars with host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and special guest, Wes Granberg Michaelson, author of Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage. In our post-Trump America it is clear that white Americans are experiencing a major shake-up—especially white men. Something more is needed to address the questions of the white soul. Wes’s new book, Without Oars, might just point the way toward the transformation we need to embrace a new future for our nation and for the Church.
Brian McLaren (author, speaker, activist) thinks outside of the box. He’s a true prophet who decodes the current moment and casts vision for what’s coming. Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Brian McLaren as they dive deep on the state of white men in the post-Trump era--and what spiritual re-formation will require of them in this shifting age.
This fall Evangelicals launched an honest, raw conversation about our values for integrity and leadership. We decided this conversation was too good and the stakes are too high not to share with our podcast audience! We asked this core question: In our churches, are the principles of our faith guiding our politics? OR Is our politics guiding our principles?
Join Lisa Sharon Harper as she hosts Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra (Assistant Professor, Fuller Seminary), Kyle J. Howard (Theologian and trauma-informed soul-care specialist), Justin Adour (Lead Pastor at Redeemer East Harlem) and Andrea Lucado (Author and Journalist) in this National Town Hall on Evagelical Faith and Politics.
Interfaith leaders came together in the wake of the death of Mr. George Floyd by officers who knelt on his neck and body as he pled with them, “I can’t breathe!” In the weeks before and since Mr. Floyd’s death, multiple other black men, women and children have been killed by police. Listen as 14 of the most prolific and prophetic faith leaders in our nation engage the National Town Hall on Policing and Law Enforcement.
Featuring: Host, Lisa Sharon Harper, Freedom Road Rabbi Sharon Brous, IKAR- Los Angeles Valarie Kaur, Revolutionary Love Project Bishop Yvette Flunder, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries Stosh Cotler, Bend the Arc Bishop Darren Ferguson, Healing Communities USA Shane Claiborne, Red Letter Christians Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK Lobby Jim Wallis, Sojourners Rev. Dr. Leroy Barber, The Voices Project Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Trinity United Church of Christ Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, The Poor People’s Campaign Rev. Aundreia Alexander, National Council of Churches Rev. Adam Taylor, Sojourners
Co-sponsored by Freedom Road, LLC and Faith in Public Life
In the context of the most divided nation since the 1960’s millions of Americans came together online for The Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington. Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, in conversation with three leading voices of The Poor People’s Campaign: Rev. Liz Theoharis (Co-Chair), Yara Allen (Director of Theomusicology) and Callie Greer (Impacted Anti-Poverty Activist). Three powerful women of the Campaign give us the story behind the story of Poverty in America.
In this raw, honest, beautiful episode host, Lisa Sharon Harper, is joined by three guests, all of whom have intersections with the issue of disability. Shannon Dingle, Lisa Anderson, Amy Kenny and Lisa engage a rare kind of conversation--the kind that changes them in rare time, as we listen in. See the world through the eyes of these three disabled women. Be inspired and be changed forever.
Much like the issue of slavery in the early 19th century, the issue of LGBTQ inclusion is splitting denominations across the United States. On opposite sides of the fault-line are those calling for inclusion and those engaging processes and crafting policies that exclude LGBTQ+ people from various levels of membership and leadership. Churches usually avoid this conversation, because the stakes are so high and the outcomes so painful. This month Freedom Road Podcast, Activist Theology Podcast and Red Letter Christians leverage the power of story to engage this fraught conversation together. Join Lisa Sharon Harper, Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza and Shane Claiborne as they wade through the troubled waters of this sensitive, necessary and timely conversation; charting a way to the other side with raw honesty and grace.
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, in conversation with the women of the Pantsuit Politics Podcast, Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart Holland. On this collaborative extended episode, released on both platforms, listen in as Lisa, Beth and Sarah talk COVID-19, sci-fi movies, canaries in mines and wrestle over one hard question: What will alliance with women of color require of White women in 2020? Be prepared to hear all of the things that need to be said. The times we are living in require it.
The issue of abortion has the level of power it does in our nation because we never talk about it. So, we’re going to talk about it. Listen in as host, Lisa Sharon Harper, is joined by Rev. Susan Chorley (Exhale), Rev. Shekinah Hamlin (Christian Church Disciples of Christ) and Andrea Lucado (evangelical journalist) to talk about Abortion and Reproductive Justice. This is a #mustlisten conversation.
Listen in on this powerful conversation between Lisa Sharon Harper (host) and Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III (Lead Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ). The two dive deep on the power of pilgrimage and legacy. As the son of a Civil Rights hero, Moss shares how pilgrimage helped him understand his father better and himself as a man of African descent in the US.
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and guest Belinda Bauman as they go off-script and dig deep in this vulnerable and raw conversation about the relationship between power and solidarity. #silenceisnotspiritual #solidaritysunday
Advent is about God's embodied solidarity with humanity. In December 2015 Dr. Larycia Hawkins, political science prof at Wheaton College in Illinois placed a hijab on her head, took a picture and posted a message on Facebook in solidarity with Muslim women who were being targeted and forced to take off their hijabs in public spaces within democracies around the world. Standing in embodied solidarity with Muslim women as her Advent practice, Dr. Hawkins lost her job and became the target of white patriarchal evangelicalism. Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, as she examines the intersectional oppressions of race, gender and religion with Dr. Hawkins and the Emmy Award Winning filmmaker who documented Hawkins's story, Linda Midgett, director of "Same God."
Want to see #SameGodFilm? Please tag @PBS in your region and @Netflix and ask them to carry #SameGodFilm! And don't forget to use the hashtag #embodiedsolidarity.
This month on Freedom Road Podcast join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and special guest State Representative Ruth Anna Buffalo--the first Native American woman Democrat elected to North Dakota's State Assembly. In honor of Native American History Month, the two recount stories from their recent pilgrimage through the stories of Buffalo's people, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation on the Fort Berthold Reservation. They consider the stories the land tells about historic and current violence and resilience in Native America.
2019 marked the 400th year since Africans first stepped foot on North American shores. Antony and Isabela (their given slave names) were brought from Angola aboard a Portuguese slave ship bound for Mexico. The White Lion, an English warship, pirated the Portuguese ship and stole its human cargo. The first “20 and odd” Africans brought to this land in chains stepped off the White Lion in the year of our Lord 1619. Antony and Isabela were among them. They were traded for food by residents of Jamestown. Bought by Captain Tucker, they eventually found each other and fell in love. They bore the very first African-American in 1624–William Tucker. This month join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and her guests Vincent Tucker (Direct descent of Antony and Isabela) and Angelique Walker-Smith (Pan-African and Orthodox Church Engagement, Bread for the World). Learn about life for the first African Americans and consider the path toward America’s healing over the next 400 years.
In this second episode of the Freedom Road Podcast two-part series on Immigration, Exploitation and Labor in the U.S. join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and company as they travel from The Alamo to the Borderlands; shining light on America's labor system--a system perpetually dependent on the no-cost and low-cost labor of black and brown immigrant labor.
Over the next two episodes pilgrimage with us on Freedom Road Podcast as we stand on the land where whips cracked backs to bleed more work from black and brown bodies. Stand with us in a literal valley of dry bones—a mass grave filled with the bodies of men and boys swept up in the post-antebellum terror of peonage. Sit with us as we speak with a descendant of America’s Bracero program and faith leaders pushing back against the exploitation of asylum seekers in America’s detention system today. Host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Sandy Ovalle (Immigration Campaign Manager at Sojourners) are on pilgrimage from the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana to a mass grave in Sugar Land outside Houston, Texas to the Alamo in San Antonio to the borderlands of McAllen, Texas where they cross the border into Mexico. This episode features guests: Ashley Rogers, Executive Director of Whitney Plantation Dr. Ibrahima Seck, Director of Research of Whitney Plantation Reginald Moore, Founder of the Sugar Land Convict Leasing and Labor ProjectLiz Peterson, Board Member of the Sugar Land Convict Leasing and Labor Project Suzzette Montgomery, Communications Director of the Sugar Land Convict Leasing and Labor Project Click here to find out how you can join us on a Freedom Road Pilgrimage.(Hyperlink to: https://freedomroad.us/what-we-do/freedom-road-pilgrimages/ ) Join us next month for the second half of our pilgrimage into the fruits of American exploitation of immigrant labor.
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Timothy McMahan King (author of Addiction Nation, slated for release June 11) for a profound conversation about King's battle with addiction and what it taught him about the soul of America. This is a #mustlisten, #musttakenotes, then #mustshare episode.
Throughout the 19th century nearly every protestant denomination in the U.S. split over disagreements on the institution of slavery. Not since then have we witnessed such tectonic fissures in the body of Christ. In the 21st century, the issue is LGBTQ inclusion. Nearly every denomination in the U.S. has or is experiencing the tension. In this moment of profound division many churches are tempted to obscure their views and policies in an effort to hold divided parties together. The creators of Church Clarity believe clarity is just--and can lead to healing. Join host Lisa Sharon Harper and the creators of the Church Clarity initiative, George Mekhail and Sarah Ngu, for an honest, raw conversation full of ah-has.
Momma Ruby Sales is back. As the nation commemorates the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the invaluable contributions of the Civil Rights Movement, listen in and grab your pen and paper to take notes as Ruby Sales (SNCC activist and celebrated theologian) shares the pearls of wisdom she gleaned from the Southern Freedom Movement.
This month on Freedom Road, Lisa Sharon Harper, celebrates Women’s History Month with four women of the Ruby Woo Pilgrimage! Listen in as Meighan Stone (Council on Foreign Relations, Indivisible and former president of The Malala Fund), Andrea Ackerman and Melissa O’Keefe (Christ City Church DC) and Barbara Noe Kennedy (Travel Writer) reflect on the wisdom they gleaned from our nation’s foremothers‘ intersectional struggle for equality. This isn’t just history. This is straight up wisdom for right now.
Peek behind the scenes of our #BlacknessandHistory episode with Ruby Sales (SNCC, SpiritHouse Project) with this bonus mini-episode! Listen in as Auntie Ruby and, host, Lisa Sharon Harper, rap the session. Their taped conversation was so electric that it kept going after the mics were turned off--only they weren't turned off! Sound engineer, David Dault, who also joins the conversation, captured lightening in a bottle.
Have you ever had one of those moments when it feels like everyone that experienced it just lived for a split second in another realm? We have. While recording this episode. This conversation on #BlacknessandHistory between host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Civil Rights Movement veteran, Ruby Nell Sales (SNCC organizer, celebrated theologian and founder of The SpiritHouse Project), hits new levels of deep within the first few minutes—and they keep drilling down. More than an interview, this is a transcendent exchange—between an elder and a generation. Listen in as Sales and Harper go in on: Southern Black excellence, intersectional identities, respectability politics, the white imagination of blackness, internalized white patriarchy, beloved community, reparations and humility. Do not miss this. For your convenience and because it is that important, we’ve transcribed this episode to help you follow along and take notes. We’ve also provided links to certain terms and names to help you milk this convo for all it’s worth. Finally, this moment was so special that Harper and Sales kept going for 20 mins after the episode wrapped. We got it on tape! Watch for that bonus episode later this month!
Join host, Lisa Sharon Harper, in this mind-blowing conversation with East Harlem pastor and author Jose Humphreys, indigenous scholar Dr. Randy Woodley, South African activist Rene' August and white Evangelical consultant Alexei Laushkin. Run and get pen and paper and #takenotes as these four Freedom Road Consultants consider the nature of justice, what justice will require of the church and share their #JusticeAgenda2019!
Host Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes guests Waltrina Middleton, Amena Brown, and Catherine Sherman to discuss how art and justice can work together
What responsibility does the church (particularly the Evangelical church) bare for the state of US public life? In this episode Lisa Sharon Harper sits down for a timely reunion with her coauthors of the book, Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith. Join Lisa as she explores the possibility of national healing through the lament and repentance of the church with guests Soong-Chan Rah, Mae Cannon, Troy Jackson.
Join us as Lisa Sharon Harper digs deep into the Pain of Patriarchy with Susan Sharkey (visual artist, #metoo /church abuse survivor) and Emily Joy (poet and co-creator of #Churchtoo).
Guests Rev. Dr. William Barber and Anisha Singh join host Lisa Sharon Harper to discuss the troubled history of Supreme Court nominations and their effects on the last half century of American struggles for justice.
Lisa Sharon Harper talks #BlackMensMagic with prolific theologian and ethicist, Dr. Reggie Williams (author of Bonhoeffer's Black Jesus). Listen in as Harper and Williams talk Black Panther, Black men fathering Black boys--and girls, decolonizing theological education and who we really are! Grab your pen and paper. You will definitely want to take notes. And this one is one to share and talk about with your friends and communities.
This month on Freedom Road, in the long shadow of heinous immigration policy, we are taking a breath and hitting pause on the cray-cray to celebrate the magic, the wisdom and the strength of Latina dragon-slayers! Come listen in as fierce theologian Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, organizer Alexia Salvatierra, community developer Lisa Trevino Cumins and advocate Jessica Cobian share with host, Lisa Sharon Harper, and all of us what they have learned about the world and how to thrive in it by #BeingLatina!
This month listen in and "Listen up!" as Lisa Sharon Harper offers this extended convo on #BlackGirlMagic! Rev. Traci Blackmon, United Church of Church Executive Minister of Justice and Local Ministries; Rev. Leslie Copeland-Tune, Director of Ecumenical Advocacy Days; and Rev. Sekinah Hamlin, Director of Faith Affairs at the Center for Responsible Lending join the panel.
This month host Lisa Sharon Harper is joined by guests, Ciara Taylor (Dream Defenders and The Poor People's Campaign), Sister Simone Campbell (Network Lobby), and Rev. Dr. Angelique Walker-Smith (Bread for the World). Four diverse women shine light on this thing we call poverty. Listen as they share their own connections to poverty and wrestle with critical questions: What is poverty? What are its roots in the U.S.? Who is impacted? And how do we end it?
In Episode 3, host Lisa Sharon Harper mines stories and lessons from and for The Movement from very special guests, Rev. C.T. Vivian (Lieutenant of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, JR who coordinated The Civil Rights Movement nationwide) and Sam Fulwood III (Columnist at ThinkProgress at Center for American Progress).
FreedomRoadPodcast
Our host Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes Philip Wolgin of Center for American Progress, Jenny Yang of World Relief, and Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, to discuss the current crisis in US immigration policy
Lisa Sharon Harper welcomes LaShawn Warren of Center for American Progress, Nikki Toyama-Szeto of Evangelicals for Social Action, and Belinda Bauman of Together International and One million Thumbprints, to speak about #MeToo and #SilenceIsNotSpiritual