Looking for new and creative ways to commemorate Black History Month? Check out the Liberation Calendar — a month long set of reflections, inspirations, and community-building activities for individuals, families, organizations, classes, whoever w...
Continue ReadingIn October, Iyalorixá Valnizia Pereira, Ebomi Marilene Cruz and Ogan Josuel Queiroz traveled from Salvador, Bahia Brazil for an 8-day residency in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, North Carolina, co-sponsored by VOHP. The elders from the Terreiro do Cobre...
Continue ReadingI. Recently, Rev. Jeri Wright and her father, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, asked me to join them in leading an early morning prayer fellowship. They have been organizing this informal, online meeting since April, as a service of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor C...
Continue ReadingIn the photo above, from November 2015, Makota Valdina Pinto — an esteemed elder in the Angola Candomblé tradition — offers popcorn in a rite of cleansing and blessing to participants in an annual march for religious tolerance and res...
Continue ReadingWe are proud to announce the upcoming visit to the USA of Iyalorixá Valnizia de Ayrá (Mãe Val) — senior Candomblé priestess and community activist from Brazil. Candomblé is a powerful, poetic and ancestral tradition developed by enslaved ...
Continue ReadingA thoughtful meditation on the “hauntings” of Blackness in the modern world and the non-linear way we connect to our culture, our music and our history across the Afro-Atlantic diaspora. Read the essay by James Padilioni, Jr. here.
Continue Reading