A series of gatherings for Black elders across Black churches | Praying, imagining and interceding for Black Freedoms

I was not supposed to be born and I nearly died a few times on my journey to telling this story. Selah. I am a joyous, creative person and some days, I am a knotted shoulder or back spasm, an unspoken desire or new idea. I am strong and genius. Each day is a prayer answered. Amen.

I grew up doing Psalm work with my mother. These writings have guided many journeys, processes, failings and triumphs. The Psalms have been intoxicating, a reprieve and soothing balm more potent than aged grapes. Selah.

This work, VSO.Psalms (Very Special Old Psalms) is an exercise in seeing. Selah.

In witnessing the witnessing of Arielle Julia Brown’s time with elders and other participants, I was secondhand beholding visions of protracted thinking and meditation with the Psalms. It was a window. Selah.

And the imagery born is abstract minimalism. Because I cannot possibly retell another person's story word for word, but I can and will capture the simple beauty of their truth.

As with the Book of Psalms, I believe that with this work, (if the witness of it is open, available and willing) these pieces succeed in:

Pointing out our coming saviour

Asking that we be kept safe from evil, hurt, harm and danger

Admitting that we need help

Giving thanks & praise for work done for our benefit

Observing holy days for ritual

Practicing personal ceremonies

And finally Remaining poetic about life despite hardship

Thank you to the elders and other participants and to my new dear sibling Arielle for the call to fellowship with the Psalms.

Growing up as Black girl child, church-going was sometimes the center of my life and sometimes a non-practice. But faith was around everything and in everything - and every-thing itself.

My mother inherited psalmwork practices from her mother and my paternal grandmother. For us, this meant that the Psalms were the space to seek God when we didn’t have enough, when we were depressed, when we needed to bless or curse just and unjust people and circumstances. The Psalms have held my mother and my grandmothers. And many a day, especially as of late, they have held me too. And I have always loved Watch Night. Watch Night, as a ritual, has protected us and shored us up. In slavery, in freedom, in seemingly easeful years and in more vigilant seasons, it has been a prayer and a practice for our protection from our present into the next. It has been a longstanding dream of mine to make a work for watch night. I thank you for being in witness and community with this dream.

Over the summer, when Pastor Callahan approached me about facilitating/holding a weekly healing/meditative space on St Paul’s Baptist Church’s congregational wellness calls, I could not imagine how much I would personally come to need this weekly space with my church family. This workshop space over the last four months (and on into the future) holds our conversations, our prayers, our cooking, our jokes, our play, our dreaming, our writing and our artmaking right up next to our ever present anger, grief, despair and anxiety. Somehow, by the grace of God, we’ve been able to gather and hold each other through this collaborative process in spite of the times and being online. Making this deeply intimate offering despite not being able to touch and see each other in person has been a life affirming miracle set aside just for this moment. I pray there is miraculous joy here for you as well.

I give thanks for the deep and abiding generosity of:

God

St Paul’s Baptist Church

Charlyn Griffith-Oro

Shanel Edwards

Rev. Dr. Leslie D Callahan

Rev. Charisse Tucker

Courtney Morris (for sharing with me the language of psalmwork)

Julius Brown

Millie Langley

Dianne Tucker

Steve Jackson

Deirdre Rossell Wright

Darius Wright

Jeannine Kayembe

My mama n’em (always)

Ministry: Creative Arts and Expressions

Ministry: Steward Board, Class Leader

Ministry: Health Ministry, Van Ministry

Ministry: Usher Board