Common Good Collective

Reader

This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

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“There Is No Table Long Enough”

This poem moves from distance and fear to closeness and courage. In this time of threat and violent conflict, these stanzas are worth memorizing. "There Is No Table Long Enough"...Read More

On Choosing to Belong to a Place

Patterns of monstrous greed have set our species at war with non-human beings. In this 2020 letter, scientist and prose artist Robin Wall Kimmerer invites us to Indigenous ways of...Read More

“More Heart, Less Attack”

Making peace involves mining the emotions that we may have learned to cover up. It involves paying attention and looking for language to map the impermissible feelings—anger, sadness, fear. This...Read More

Imagining Peace

Raised in Northern Ireland, Pádraig Ó Tuama has spent much of his life building peace in the face of conflict. In this talk, he celebrates the ways in which language...Read More

Liberation: To Be Free From

Sometimes we get a glimpse of light and can unearth just enough audacity to liberate ourselves.  We become free from a person, expectation, or ideal that may have oppressed us...Read More

Two Poems by Crystal Wilkinson

Crystal Wilkinson is Kentucky’s Poet Laureate.  The following poems are from her most recent publication entitled Perfect Black, a memoir in verse which elegantly explores rural Black girlhood, religion, sexual...Read More

“What a Good Woman Does”

Joy Williams has several solo albums and was also part of the Grammy winning duo The Civil Wars.  Her music acknowledges the tension between brilliance and tragedy in this life....Read More

The Book of Delights: “Joy is Such a Human Madness”

Ross Gay’s wonderful collection entitled The Book of Delights honors familiar sights, sounds, and interactions by describing the wonder and joy found within each.

Undersong: To be free from projecting...

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Zen Shorts: “The Farmer’s Luck”

Jon Muth is an author and artist whose Zen series introduces us to a friendship between 3 neighborhood children and a wise panda named Stillwater.  Readers witness common childhood conflict,...Read More

Liberation: Resilience Required

The struggle for liberation is not for the faint of heart. It is for the full of heart, faith, and resilience. There are many demoralizing moments along the way, and...Read More

“Don’t Give Up”

There are times, like I feel today, when we don't want to keep fighting. We place down our pen, our phone, our tools, and look at the unfinished tasks and...Read More

A Nation On the Verge of Becoming

The most impacting liberation has always been collective and grassroots. North Carolina Black Alliance is one such collective effort that his grown tremendously in power and impact over its lifespan....Read More

Minding The Gap

In a society that has deeply embraced a colorblind racist ideology of ignoring differences and focusing on strengths, we have yet to learn as a country the magic of embracing...Read More

Practice Liberation

Liberation is ongoing. This week’s reader focuses on four practices that bring more and more freedom: openheartedness, imagination, rest, and gratitude. Maybe these sound fuzzy or soft, but the clarity...Read More

“We Lived Happily During the War”

Ilya Kamisky is a Ukrainian-American poet whose work voices the unease we feel at this moment. Though we must defend joy, rest, and gratitude, we insist that they cannot numb...Read More

A Little More Than Kin

Richard Powers won the Pulitzer prize for Overstory , his novel tracing the essential connections between trees and humans. In this essay, he urges us to find liberation from our...Read More

Resting on and for the Earth

It takes a lot of work to defend rest. Tricia Hersey is a public health activist who sees rest as a way to free our- selves, decolonize our lives, and...Read More

“I wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free”

Nina Simone was born Feb 21, 1933 in the small foothills town of Tryon, NC. She helped give voice to the Black freedom struggle in the United States and across...Read More

“You need to ask ME!”

Have you ever wondered how certain communities and sites receive their names? Some, like Chavis Park here in Raleigh, are chosen by the people. Others, like Greg's neighborhood of Enderly...Read More

The Systems and The Culture That Bind

A community built for liberation has to tackle the long-held norms that have trained us all for scarcity. The culture built around systems of racism, which is to say, systems...Read More

Liberation Is Conversation

This week's reader is all about the power of conversation. Whether through prose, poetry, or face-to-face, our human interactions are the birth place of freedom. Conversation is powerful regardless of...Read More

On Liberty and Slavery”

George Moses Horton was born the property of William Horton and his tobacco plantation in 1798. After teaching himself to read, a love for poetry blossomed. First, lines sprouted leaves...Read More

Why Direct Action?

There are a handful of American essays that become indelible. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is one. It needs no introduction, and demands a regular re-reading.

"Letter from a...

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The Six Conversations by Peter Block

In this series, Peter Block offers more context and nuance in his approach to shifting the community narrative. The essence is to invite people to connect using the Six Conversations...Read More