Becoming A Good Ancestor
If I could, I would let you borrow my copy of Cole Arthur Riley’s This Here Flesh, but I highly suggest you read the publisher's excerpt of the first chapter...Read More
A Beautiful Resistance
This week, two of our readings come from Cole Arthur Riley. You’re welcome. As introduction, here’s a brief conversation that invites us to engage with our inner conflict. If I...Read More
Bet on Black Women for Smarter Cities
The image of start-up culture is often filled with tech products and fast growth. Sherrell Dorsey wants us to change our focus on where start-ups happen, and who starts them....Read More
The Womb Problem
America has always had a complicated relationship with motherhood. Many facets of our culture, collective identity, and moral values are wrapped up in the role and rights of women and...Read More
New Motherhood, a Dictionary
This Sunday, American's celebrate Mother's Day. It's a bittersweet celebration this year as the contemplate whether or not parenthood is a sacred choice or a law-bound mandate. Namrata Poddar contemplates...Read More
Trading Our Capes for Quilts
In light of last night's drafted Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe. V. Wade, it's important to understand the true historical context of such decisions. I had the pleasure of...Read More
Nurturing a Narrative
Author and entrepreneur Victoria Scott-Miller was an instant sister when we met three years ago. Interviewing her for this article illuminated another conflict that few consider — economic isolation and...Read More
“This is what was bequeathed to us”
At first, I learned that a story was a series of conflicts, always this versus that. Later, I learned that a story was a series of disconnections and reconnections. These...Read More
Pádraig Ó Tuama on Finding Uncommon Ground
Pádraig Ó Tuama is a calm, kind presence. He welcomes strangers like lifelong friends. The word I’m looking for is disarming. In this conversation, Pádraig sheds light on many things,...Read More
I’m Making Real Change in My City
To make your town strong, build relationships. This piece is called a manifesto, and I think it’s actually a practical guide from someone who has laid a foundation of face-to-face...Read More
Reflecting on Reconciliation
There is an invitation to reconcile right here, all around us, in each moment. Some provide an opportunity to reconcile externally by repairing the damage we’ve caused through our political,...Read More
“It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way”
Songwriter, author, and activist Andre Henry describes his latest song with the following, "This is the new version of my signature song. It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way. The...Read More
An Unhoused High Schooler’s New Nest
Each of us has navigated this pandemic the best way we know how. Viruses by definition are unpredictable, and fresh data and circumstances have thrown us into confusion more than...Read More
Helping the Rich Let Go
Over the next 20 years, between $35 trillion and &70 trillion will change hands from baby boomers to millennials globally. This will be the largest intergenerational transfer of private wealth...Read More
Rethinking our Place
Place often plays an important role in conflict. Who belongs where? Who owns what? How do we treat this space? This reader reflects on how place shapes and influences how...Read More
“I Have a Dream”
This week marks the 82nd birthday of Herbie Hancock, one of the most transformative figures in American music during the past 60 years. Here’s a track written in honor of...Read More
Life and Labor in a Poultry Plant
"One way to deal with that fear is to share stories, and know that it's okay to be afraid, frightened." This quotation from poultry plant worker-turned-activist Donna Bazemore perfectly describes...Read More
Our Trespasses
"Hidden just below the surface of the missionary impulse is the politics of conquest. I inherited that legacy." Greg Jarrell nimbly this surface tension in his essay about the the...Read More
Violence, and the Sins of Aggression
The Russian War on Ukraine, "The Slap", and Holy Week. What do these things have in common? They are all examples of conflict. Conflict, Reconciliation, and Redemption is The Reader's...Read More
“Backwards”
One in 15 children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year, and 90% of these children are eyewitnesses to this violence. In "Backwards", poet Warsan Shire shares her experience...Read More
“The V-Word”
Violence is often treated like a taboo subject, even though we experience it in its various iterations every day. I have written an essay reflecting on the issue of violence...Read More
Make the Voices in Your Head Your Friends
Conflict not only occurs in relationship with others, but also with the self. When we are able to navigate such conflicts, however, the results are the same — the fruits...Read More
Imagine Peace
This week’s Reader is the in our Liberators series. It presents work that calls us to look right at the forces that keep us caged. They describe liberation as bringing...Read More