Category: Art as Resistance
Merry Christmas
By Langston Hughes (1930)
Merry Christmas, China
From the gun-boats in the river,
Ten-inch shells for Christmas gifts,
And peace on earth forever.
Merry Christmas, India,
To Gandhi in his cell,
From righteous Christian England,
Ring out, bright Christmas bell!
Ring Merry Christmas, Africa,
From Cairo to the Cape!
Ring Hallehuiah! Praise the Lord!
(For murder and rape.)
Ring Merry Christmas, Haiti!
(And drown the voodoo drums –
We’ll rob you to the Christian hymns
Until the next Christ comes.) Continue reading “Merry Christmas”
Cradles Unsuppressed
By Bill Ramsey
December’s first day dawns,
presenting an unexpected sketch
between my beaten path’s margin
and a recently resurgent river’s bank.
A patch of park is neatly etched
beneath a tree’s elongated umbra.
The tall rusty cypress unknowingly
casts a silhouette of a Christmas tree. Continue reading “Cradles Unsuppressed”
Third Sunday of Advent
Silent Night
By Ken Sehested
To move into a seemingly bleak and
ominous future requires laying hold
of stories from our past:
Stories to remind us that buoyancy
emerges from unseen places,
at unknowing moments,
in unpredictable ways,
beyond all calculation
and prognostication. Continue reading “Silent Night”
Second Sunday of Advent
Radical Recommendations for Gift-Giving
Because Christmas has become so central to the American economy and American consumption is so central to global capitalism, this festival of ‘Holy Days’ has become a central expression and embodiment of American imperial domination, an imperial religion.
Richard Horsley, Religion and Empire (2003)
Truly, this Season signals a major tension for North American radical disciples. We resist and reclaim. Whether it is our love language our not, we give. But some forms of giving are far more redemptive than others.
It is in this Spirit that we offer gift ideas from more out-of-the-way, up-and-coming, long-suffering and open-hearted thinkers and artists. Links to their work are provided here and will eventually be added to our now-pemanent “STORE” tab up top. We hope this list is an Advent-instigator: please add your recommendations to the comments below or email us so we can add them to the store!!!
From the Poor People’s Campaign, coming to a watershed near you in 2018:
The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear by Rev. William Barber
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A beautiful 2016 publication from Philly-based pastor-parent-activist about using the difficult and challenging parts of life as a way to deepen your spiritual path and become more authentic.
The Soul-Making Room by Dee Dee Risher
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There are two new releases from this Detroit-based pastor-activist who has been hauling the sanctuary on to the streets since the early 70’s.
Principalities in Particular: A Practical Theology of the Powers That Be by Bill Wylie-Kellermann
Where the Water Goes Around: Beloved Detroit by Bill Wylie-Kellermann
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From the dry creek-beds of Southern California comes this deep collection of young practitioners experimenting with place-based radicalism…
Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice edited by Ched Myers
And a older-yet-timely offering…
Ambassadors of Reconciliation: New Testament Reflections on Restorative Justice and Peacemaking by Ched Myers and Elaine Enns
….and yet another teaming up with a SoCal-based pastor.
Our God is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice by Ched Myers and Matthew Colwell
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Truly, it is a time of exile for those of us on the left. Let’s set the clock back to the early Bush years with this re-examination of the Exodus from a Vancouver-based pastor-activist.
Set Them Free: The Other Side of Exodus by Laurel Dykstra
And More from Dykstra:
Liberating Biblical Study: Scholarship, Art and Action (w/Ched Myers)
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From two U.S.-based Filipinas displaying a celebration of the beauty, richness, and diversity of indigenous ways.
Back from the Crocodile’s Belly by Lily Mendoza and Leny Mendoza Strobel
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This one takes Jesus out of the over-spiritualized heart and over-futurized heaven and places him right where he was in the Gospels: the street!
Messianism Against Christology: Resistance Movements, Folk Arts and Empire by James Perkinson
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From the foot of Tiger Mountain in Washington State comes a vital perspective on early church history (aka, “the roots of why Christians want to make America great again.”).
Empire Baptized: How the Church Embraced What jesus Rejected by Wes Howard-Brook
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And lest we think gift-giving is only for adults, the executive director of the Center for Prophetic Imagination in Minneapolis tells this St. Francis-inspired tale for our young ones.
A Wolf at the Gate by Mark Van Steenwyk
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This year, Charlottesville exposed us all to some of the most vicious forms of American white supremacy. But far less known, C’Ville is home to some radical experimentation, including sweet sounds from a young singer-songwriter. Perfect for people defined by death-and-resurrection.
Claire Hitchins, These Bodies
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And this! From a Minneapolis-based artist and PhD candidate releasing her first album, a powerfully rich blend bursting with beauty, grief, creativity and prophetic wisdom.
Katherine Parent, The Wait for Green
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Probably the most unique musical contribution of the movement is from Philly-based Holy Fool Arts, a voice of and for the wilderness that combines poetry, theatrical masks, ancient rhythms, traditional and modern dance forms, with a heavy side of the blues.
Beast, Groan
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And for those who prefer dance as their desired form of resistance: this Detroit-based DJ dubs in Rev. Barber to raise the roof off the White House.
Peter Croce, Revival
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For much of our own graphic inspiration RadicalDiscipleship.net heads north to Duluth to be captivated by beauty and truth on paper.
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Lastly, a recommendation from author-activist Wes Howard-Brook fair-trade, organic chocolate from Mama Ganache. From WHB:
They are THE BEST! As we all know, corporate chocolate production is both a human and environmental horror show. The folks at MG use their profits to support farmers in West Africa in many ways, as explained on their website. I’ve been ordering from them for years!
Mary’s Song
A [re]post from Margaret Anne Ernst, Associate Student Pastor at Brookmeade Congregational Church, UCC:
An intertextual reading of Luke 1:45-55 aka Mary’s Song and “Winners & losers in the Senate GOP tax bill.”
And Mary said,
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Continue reading “Mary’s Song”
Artemisia Gentileschi: A Hero Among Women
This piece was developed during the second Bartimaeus Institute Online (BIO) Study Cohort 2016-2017. These pieces will eventually be published in a Women’s Breviary collection. For more information regarding the BIO Study Cohort go here.
By Lola West
To appreciate the significance of the female artist Artemisia Gentileschi, 1593-1653, we must first understand the men who helped mold her. Such is true of many of the female artists during the pervasive, unyielding patriarchy, as seen in the Italian Renaissance. Growing up in the 17th century, Artemisia Gentileschi spent much of her early life being defined as the daughter of celebrated artist, Orazio Gentileschi. The senior Gentileschi was a pupil and follower of Caravaggio, a renowned male artist who was known for capturing emotion through his biblical renderings. Caravaggio was to the 17th century art scene as Leonardo Dicaprio was to every adolescent girl in the 1990’s- a big deal. His revolutionary style encouraged the movement of artistic realism based in biblical narrative. In an era when written word was directed exclusively to the highly educated, the realist movement also appealed to the illiterate, breathing life into viewer’s emotions and stimulating a devout religiosity amongst Italians. Continue reading “Artemisia Gentileschi: A Hero Among Women”
What the Tears Falling to the Ground Might Yet Fertilize
By Tommy Airey
Earlier this month, I started Bayo Akomolafe’s recently-released These Wilds Beyond Our Fences seeking spiritual solidarity. Like most, my soul has been squeezed by concentric circles of cacophony. Climate catastrophe rages (globally) while a major political party (led almost exclusively by white men) denies it all and “successfully” utilizes weapons of voter suppression, legalized bribery, gerrymandering and Russian collusion to take full reigns of power (nationally and state-wide). Meanwhile, water shutoffs and home foreclosures pelt a city cloaked by leaders calling it a “comeback” (locally).
These rings of austerity and white supremacy have formed the ice rink of an epic institutional collapse. Families, faith communities, foundations, the “free” market and finance—these fail to offer compelling solutions for any of it. Instead, they drive the Zamboni. These are maddening times and no one, it seems, is really sure what to do about it. Confusion reigns. Continue reading “What the Tears Falling to the Ground Might Yet Fertilize”
