Mission Yearbook: Wrestling with imagination and creativity

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The final plenary delivered by the Rev. Dr. Almeda M. Wright during APCE’s Annual Event was on wrestling with imagination. Wright added “creativity” to her assignment. “This allows me to add my own research,” said Wright, associate professor of Religious Education at the Yale Divinity School.

In her most recent book, “Teaching to Live: Black Religion, Activist-Educators, and Radical Social Change,” Wright offered up case studies on young Christian activists and more seasoned activists. In her final plenary, she lifted up some of their stories.

The Rev. Dr. nyle fort, an assistant professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, began preaching at age 16 but did not become interested in politics until becoming a student at Princeton Theological Seminary, according to Wright. “He was wrestling throughout seminary with theological and political convictions,” she said. “I resonated with nyle’s story. I wrestled in seminary, too.”

After Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, fort and other furious students got on a bus and headed to Ferguson. fort came up with a “Seven Last Words: Strange Fruit Speaks” church service when “he was brokenhearted because he felt he couldn’t go to church and express his rage,” Wright said. “He wanted to sit in a sanctuary and just cry, but he couldn’t think of a church that would allow him that space.”

In “Seven Last Words,” fort “created sacred space for lament and remembrance,” Wright said. The services have been replicated and many have been livestreamed. “He imagined something different was possible,” Wright said, “which sparked his creativity.” She called crafting the service “creation out of chaos.”

Educator Septima Clark is depicted on the cover of Wright’s book. In the cover photo, Clark is showing an adult learner how to hold a pencil.

“She is one of my favorite educators,” Wright said. Clark lost her teaching job after 40 years in the classroom for refusing to resign from the NAACP as required by a 1956 South Carolina law.

She became director of education and training for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which established its Citizenship Education Program modeled on citizen workshops that Clark developed. “She taught and trained a generation of leaders,” Wright said. “Her work was to empower leaders, not to come in and take over.”

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Her pedagogy was “simple and effective,” Wright said, noting it was practical, improvisational and communal.

Practical — Clark used literacy tests, tax bills, sewing patterns and recipes “in order not to insult adult learners, but teach them the things they most needed to function on their own,” Wright said.

Improvisational — Rather than “a lack of training or preparation,” Clark said there’s “skill, care, wisdom and courage” in improvising well. “Improvisational pedagogy is flexible and willing to risk,” Wright said.

Communal — “Clark and her fellow teachers did better because they valued the dignity of people,” Wright said. “She selected teachers who didn’t consider themselves superior to their learners.” For the most part, Clark didn’t hire professional teachers, asking instead bus drivers, beauticians, mechanics, and others to staff the Citizenship Education Program. “They could talk to common folks, and they couldn’t have their jobs taken away,” Wright noted.

Clark “believed in people’s capacity to change, and she believed in people’s ability to respond when they are told the truth,” Wright said. “Her starting place was hope and trust.”

“My point is not to convince you to be like fort or Clark,” Wright said. “But we are called to new places of imagining and of risk-taking.” When she herself was a young student, “I was one of those who would stare into space during class. I would dream of riding on the wings of the butterfly” outside the classroom window, Wright recalled. “Today I want to give you permission not to zone in on what’s currently in front of you. I want to give you permission to daydream.”

Whenever she would allow her mind to wander, “new ideas for the task at hand would emerge.” Nowadays, Wright just lies down for a bit to let that happen. “Dreaming and resting are part of our resistance movement,” she said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service, Interim Unified Agency (Click here to read original PNS story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Emily Hord, Assistant General Counsel, Legal and Risk Management, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Sy Hughes, Ministry Engagement Advisor, Ministry Engagement & Support, Administrative Services Group, (A Corp)  

Let us pray:

Lord Christ, unite us in our awareness of you, our oneness in you, even across our differing cultures, languages, political affiliations, genders, and economic conditions. In that oneness may the vitality of your abundant life be celebrated. Amen.