Author Archives: Laura Rediehs

About Laura Rediehs

I teach philosophy and peace studies at St. Lawrence University, and play flutes.
by | March 9, 2023 · 3:38 pm

Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 4

The American Friends Service Committee & The BlackQuaker Project Present

THE 2023 BLACK QUAKER LIVES MATTER FILM FESTIVAL & FORUM

Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars 

Saturday, 18 March, 1:00 PM EDT over Zoom

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum will soon return with its fourth event, honoring the life and legacy of Benjamin Banneker. On Saturday, 18 March, we will screen Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars (1981), a television film starring the renowned artist-activist Ossie Davis as the legendary astronomer, surveyor, mathematician, and almanac publisher. Born a free man of Senegalese descent, Banneker attended Quaker Meeting for much of his life, helped survey the boundaries of Washington, DC, and even petitioned Thomas Jefferson to recognize Black liberation efforts. After the film, we will have the unique opportunity to learn more about Benjamin Banneker’s life and legacy from his Black and White descendents: retired educator Gwen Marable, Northwestern University scholar-linguist Dr. Rachel Jamison Webster, and educator Pamela Williams. All three will be participating in our post-screening dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A.

Register here for our Saturday, 18 March, screening and forum. Programming will take place over Zoom webinar and begins precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. We invite our registrants to join our webinar early, at 12:40 PM EDT, for a mini-concert of selected African American freedom music. Please write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum.

Peace and Blessings,

Dr. Harold D. Weaver

Film Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host

Banneker BQLMFF-1Download

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by | February 25, 2023 · 12:01 pm

Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 3

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum
Saturday, 4 March, 1:00 PM EST: Sisters In Freedom
Black & White Women in the Abolition Struggle: Sarah Mapps Douglass

Join us on Saturday, 4 March, as we celebrate Women’s History Month with a unique look at early collaboration between Black and White women fighting for African American emancipation. The third event of the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum honors Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882) an abolitionist, educator, artist, and author. She is a member of the Morrey-Bustill Quaker family, which produced two centuries of African American Friends, and is also an ancestor of Paul Robeson. For our program, we will screen Sisters in Freedom, which tells the stories of trailblazing Black and White women, our honoree among them, who organized for both gender equality and the abolition of slavery. After our screening, we will host a discussion between eminent Haverford historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and Joyce Mosley, author and historian of the Morrey-Bustill family (of which she is a member). Following their dialogue, our guest experts will participate in a Q & A with our audience.

How To Register

Register here for our Saturday, 4 March, program which will take place over a Zoom webinar. You will be sent a confirmation email upon registration and will later receive a link to join our webinar 24 hours in advance of the event. 
Programming will begin precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time though we invite you to join us early, at 12:40 PM EST, when we open the webinar for a 20-minute prologue of Paul Robeson music. All our remaining events are free and open to the public with prior registration. Please write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with your questions or comments.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver 
Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host

Sarah Mapps Douglass GraphicDownload

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by | February 16, 2023 · 6:27 pm

Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 2

A Unique Black History Month Event This Saturday!

Saturday, 18 February , 1 PM ET over Zoom Webinar

The Prep School Negro (2012): African Americans in Quaker Schools

Honoree: Quaker Educator Joan Countryman

This Saturday, the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continues with our second event, examining the challenges of African Americans in Quaker schools and honoring lifelong Quaker-educator Joan Countryman. On Saturday, 18 February, we will screen the 2012 documentary, The Prep School Negro, directed by trailblazing filmmaker André Robert Lee, and discuss the trials and contributions of African American students, teachers, and administrators in Quaker education. This program begins precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over Zoom Webinar. You can register here for this event and receive a Zoom invitation to join the webinar 24 hours in advance. 

We are honored to be joined by the following guest experts:

André Robert Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, consultant, writer, and educator. André has served as a professor of writing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and teaches filmmaking at the Germantown Friends School, where he worked to develop a film program. His most recent film, Virtually Free (2021), tells the story of incarcerated youth in Richmond, Virginia, and is still on the festival route.

Joan Cannaday Countryman grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and became the first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. We are thrilled to have Joan Countryman joining us as both honoree and guest expert.

Emma Bracker teaches history at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI, and has extensive experience in Quaker education as student and teacher. A graduate of Haverford College (BA – History) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.S.Ed.), she spent seven years teaching, coaching, and working in residential life at Westtown School in West Chester, PA.

We will open Satuday’s Zoom Webinar at 12:40 PM Eastern Time. Those who join early will be treated to a pre-screening mini-concert of selected music before our program begins at 1:00 PM ET. You can register here for EACH of our remaining screenings. Write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver 
Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host
theblackquakerproject@gmail.com

18 February Screening GraphicDownload

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by | February 16, 2023 · 5:28 pm

Quaker History Grants

The Friends Historical Association is pleased to offer funding to support contributions to the field of Quaker history. There are three grant opportunities: project support, publication subventions, and research funds. All opportunities run on the same cycle, and applications are due April 15, 2023. Details about each opportunity and application instruction are provided at https://www.quakerhistory.org/grants.

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by | January 13, 2023 · 4:29 pm

2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum

The American Friends Service Committee
& The BlackQuaker Project
Present:

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum
Screening & Discussion Every Other Saturday
4 February 2023 to 8 April 2023, 1 PM Eastern Time  

Dear F/friends,          

The BlackQuaker Project (BQP) is proud to announce the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, a groundbreaking exploration of Black Friends who made a difference throughout both USA and world history. This year’s festival-forum features themes of importance to African American Quakers and others concerned with truth and justice: abolition, retrospective justice/reparations, freedom, education, Black-White relations, non-violence, and anti-violence in response to systemic violence. Our honorees range from 20th century trailblazing Friends of African Descent back to early Quakers of Color who are too often forgotten. Some of their stories will challenge Friends to consider what defines a Quaker, as we examine the lives of extraordinary people of color who were Friends in all but name, and ask ourselves what may have prevented or deterred them from joining the Religious Society of Friends. Our festival-forum begins on 4 February, in recognition of Black History Month, continues through Women’s History Month in March, and ends on 8 April with a special celebration of the momentous 125th birthday of prolific artist and human rights activist Paul Robeson, a descendant of over 200 years of Quakers. 

Screenings will be held over Zoom every other Saturday at 1:00 PM Eastern Time and will feature post-screening dialogues between invited guest experts, hosted by festival-forum director and curator Dr. Harold D. Weaver. We are honored to have eminent scholar-activists, writers, and historians, some of whom are descendants of our honorees, participating in this year’s dialogues, which will conclude with Q & A sessions open to our audience.

How to Register 

Free registration is open for EACH screening on our website here! Please note that you must register for EACH screening separately. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email and, 24 hours before the screening, you will receive a Zoom link for the event you chose to attend. You can view our full program schedule below. 

Saturday, 4 February 2023: Interview with Bill Sutherland (1999) –Liberation and Non-Violence in Africa & USA 

  • Honoring Bill Sutherland (1918-2010): nonviolence advocate, veteran AFSC employee, imprisoned conscientious objector, friend and active supporter of African liberation and freedom fighters. 
  • Featuring a discussion between Joyce Ajlouny (AFSC General Secretary), Keith Harvey (AFSC  NE Regional Director), and Dr. Matthew Meyer, co-author with Bill Sutherland of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation (2001)

Saturday, 18 February 2023: The Prep School Negro (2012) –Joan Countryman: African Americans in Quaker Schools.

  • Honoring Joan Countryman (b. 1945): first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School, longtime teacher and administrator in Friends’ schools, former head of Lincoln School and co-founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa.
  • Featuring a discussion between the honoree, the film’s director-producer André Robert Lee, and Westtown School teacher-graduate Mauricio Torres (video recorded).

Saturday, 4 March 2023: Sisters in Freedom (2018) –Sarah Mapps Douglass: Women in the Abolition Struggle Against Slavery. 

  • Honoring Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882): prolific educator, author, committed abolitionist, and ancestor of Paul Robeson.
  • Featuring a discussion between eminent historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and author Joyce Mosley, a Bustill-Mapps descendant.

Saturday, 18 March 2023: Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars (1981) – Early African American Scholar-Activist. 

  • Honoring Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806): almanac publisher, astronomer, petitioner to Thomas Jefferson for African American abolition, and faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting.
  • Featuring a discussion with Banneker descendant-researchers of African and European descent: Gwen Marable, Dr. Rachel Webster, and Pamela Williams.

Saturday, 8 April 2023: Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1978) and The Proud Valley (1940) – Celebrating Paul Robeson’s 125th Birthday

  • Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star.
  • Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver.

To learn more about the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, please visit our official page for the festival-forum here on our BQP website.

Write to us at the theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum. Please feel free to forward this e-newsletter on to other organizations and individuals who you feel might be interested.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver
Festival-Forum Founding Director, Curator, and Host

BQLMFF 2023 FlyerDownload

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by | December 29, 2022 · 5:27 pm

QLHE: Complicating the Narrative

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presented:

Complicating the Narrative:
Being more neighborly in our pedagogy and our praxis

Tuesday, December 20, 2022
7:30-9 pm, eastern

Grounded in a well-known TEDTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and their own experience as rural people, Jennifer and Andy raise up the “dangers of a single story” and some ways to help our students do the same in the stories they tell.

Presenters:
Jennifer Elam
https://pendlehill.org/product/art-as-souls-sanctuary/
PhD Psychology
University of North Carolina
Retired School Psychologist
Writer and Workshop Leader


Andy Stanton-Henry
https://esr.earlham.edu/faculty-staff/andy-stanton-henry/
Master of Divinity
Associate Director
Quaker Leadership Center
Earlham School of Religion


Moderator:
Trayce N. Peterson
MA student/instructor
Human Rights Practice
University of Arizona

Bios:
Andy Stanton-Henry is a writer, Quaker minister, chicken-keeper, and distraught Reds fan. He holds degrees from Barclay College and Earlham School of Religion, and is a doctoral student studying Open and Relational Theology. He carries a special concern for rural leaders, leading to his recently published book Recovering Abundance: Twelve Practices for Small-Town Leaders. Andy has also trained in spiritual direction, labyrinth facilitation, conflict transformation, and entrepreneurial ministry. He currently serves as associate director of the Quaker Leadership Center at Earlham School of Religion. A native Buckeye, Andy now lives in East Tennessee with his spouse, Ashlyn, their blue heeler Cassie, and their laying hens.


Dr. Jennifer Elam began her study of psychology in 1969 and served in many settings until her retirement in 2014. In 1995, Jennifer was led to go to Pendle Hill for a four-week internship and ended up staying, studying spirituality, and working in Quaker ministry for 25 years. She is presently following leadings to use her life-time of work in psychology, spirituality and social justice to develop classes/workshops, using creative media – writing/poetry, dance and visual art – as led by Spirit for healing. Currently, she offers a workshop called “Mediating Trauma through Creative Expression” with Gloria Stearns-Bruner. In June of 2022, her third PH pamphlet called “Hillbilly Quaker” was published and she is now leading workshops on “Identities.” She is feeling called to interfaith ministry.

Jennifer grew up on farms in Kentucky but her parents could not make a living. At age 11, her family moved to Chicago on what was then called the “hillbilly highway” so that her parents could work in factories for 20 years. When the pandemic hit, Jennifer was in KY working on estates settlements as both her parents had died, six days apart. Figuring she could no longer go back and forth from PA to KY, she moved back. At this time, she is working on what the future holds for herself and the farm that has been in her family since the 1790’s.

FAHE – December 22 – Complicating the NarrativeDownload

Here is more information about this event, including a recording.

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by | November 5, 2022 · 1:06 pm

Pendle Hill Hiring for Office and Hands-On Roles

Pendle Hill, a Quaker study, retreat, and conference center that seeks to create peace with justice in the world by transforming lives through learning opportunities, retreat, and community is seeking four roles – two in office-based settings and two hands-on positions:

  • The Receptionist and Conference Sales Associate is the welcoming face and voice of Pendle Hill, specializing in assisting with general inquiries, completing bookings in the hospitality software, and conference leader communications.
  • The Communications and Outreach Coordinator is a strong writer and designer who promotes Pendle Hill’s services with compelling messages and visuals.
  • The Cook will join the collaborative kitchen team to create delicious family-style meals using raw ingredients sourced from the Pendle Hill organic garden and local farms.
  • The Housekeeping Associate provides a welcoming, clean and safe environment for all guests to experience Pendle Hill’s radical hospitality.

Further information about the role, qualifications, compensation/benefits, and application instructions are available in each posting and at https://pendlehill.org/explore/employment/. Please share these opportunities with those you think might be interested!

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by | November 5, 2022 · 12:35 pm

QLHE: Understanding Contemplative Pedagogy

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presents:

Understanding Contemplative Pedagogy: Creating Practices that Sustain 

Tuesday, November 29, 2022
7:30-9 pm, eastern

To register: tinyurl.com/FAHE-11-29-22

In this workshop, we will discuss the basics of Contemplative Pedagogy and break down four types of contemplative practices for how it is and can be used in classrooms.

Presenters:
Aleks Babić (they/them)
https://www.guilford.edu/multimedia/videos/2019/02/public-health-guilford-college-video
Assistant Professor
Chair/Coordinator, Department of Public Health
Guilford College


C. Wess Daniels (he/him) 
https://gatheringinlight.com/
William R. Rogers Director
Friends Center and Quaker Studies 
Guilford College

fahe-november-22-conemplative-pedagogyDownload

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by | November 4, 2022 · 2:40 pm

QLHE: Soul of Higher Education

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presented:

The Soul of Higher Education: 
Contemplative Pedagogy, Research, and Institutional Life for the 21st Century

How does the current dominant epistemology in higher education mitigate against contemplative teaching, learning, and research? How can a contemplative culture be nurtured in the classroom?

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Presenters:
Margaret Benefiel, Ph. D. 
https://shalem.org/staff-board/#office
Executive Director
Shalem Institute

Bo Karen Lee, Ph. D.
https://www.ptsem.edu/people/bo-karen-lee
Associate Professor of Spiritual Theology and Formation
Princeton Theological Seminary

Here is a link to a video and other materials from this event.

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by | October 1, 2022 · 11:13 am

First Quaker Leadings in Higher Education Event of the New Academic Year: Truth Tellers

Welcome to the first event of the Fall 2022 QLHE series.

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presented, in partnership with Twin Seas Media:

Truth Tellers: Higher Education, the Arts, and Social Justice

The importance of Truth, Creativity, and the Human Story in our classrooms, our institutions, and society.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Presenter:
Robert Shetterly
American Artist
americanswhotellthetruth.org

Moderator:
Matt Zisk
Attorney and Retired Professor
Founder and Executive Director
Cherry Brook Arts

Here is the link to the video and other information about this event.

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