Listening to...

I had the pleasure of meeting Ragan at a faith and farming conference in Indianapolis, and reading his book. I love what he has to say about humility-humus-human connection. Check out this interview: http://www.jesusradicals.com/iconocast-episode-23-ragan-sutterfield/

Praise Song for the Day

by Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other's
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what's on the other side.

I know there's something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

MLK weekend and Ella Baker

Ella Baker, from the "Americans who Tell the Truth" series
http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Ella_Baker.php

Over the MLK weekend, I took part in a three-day study of the Sermon on the Mount through the Bartimaeus Institute. Ched Myers used the civil rights, Anabaptist, and Catholic Worker (anarchist) movements as modern day expressions of the non-violent ethic expressed in Matthew 5-7. One of the main themes of the weekend was the importance of being historically literate, and so Ched and Elaine spent a lot of time telling the stories of the people and events behind the three movements we discussed.

Men led these movements, for the most part, but it was encouraging to hear about several strong woman leaders. One of these leaders was Ella Baker (1903-1986). I hadn't even heard of Baker before the Institute. She was the granddaughter of a slave, and a behind-the-scenes organizer during the Civil Rights movement. Baker helped co-found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and was actually the one who first invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Conference. Dr. King (for good reason) gets much of the credit for the successes of the civil rights movement, but it was people like Ella who did much of the ground work that made his leadership possible. Ella Baker is a new role model for me.

I deeply resonated with Baker's example, and her leadership style. She was quoted as saying, "Strong people don’t need strong leaders," and critiqued the centralized leadership of many organizations of which she was a part. Her work supported ordinary people's democratic participation in the struggle for freedom.

In our day and age, specialists and outside experts are privileged as leaders. I want to be careful of this in my area of work. There are quite a few grassroots community gardens starting in under-served areas that are led by Spanish speakers. My co-worker and I are touted as local "experts," and asked to come show these people how to develop their gardens. I am definitely not an expert, but I don't often resist the title.

Ella Baker's legacy teaches a different way of leadership power - power broadly distributed. Part of me wants people to better remember this strong, black, sister leader, which is why I write this post. However, it may well be a lesson to organizers and leaders today that she is not well-recognized, and the broader civil rights movement that she strengthened continues as perhaps the greatest social movement of our day.

One Dress Protest

Check out my friend Kristy Powell's "One Dress Protest." She's fasting from fashion by wearing one dress for one year, and is posting some great reflections based on her experience.

http://onedressprotest.com/