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Lisa Sharon Harper

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Better late than—well, you get it. 😁 This Mo

Better late than—well, you get it. 😁

This Mother’s Day, after church mom, Aunt Najuma (my father’s sister), and I paid respects to my Grandmother Willa and Great Grandmom Elizabeth (“Lizzie”). They are buried in the two black cemeteries in Philly (Mount Lawn and Eden, respectively). It was a beautiful day of connection with the ancestors.

Then on the way out of Eden, which is an national historic site on the Underground Railroad trail, my mom mentioned that the incredible black philanthropist/abolitionist, James Forten, is buried in the same cemetery as Lizzie.

So, we rounded a corner, went up a hill and…

WOOOW!!

Side by side in a row lay James Forten, William Still (who partnered with Harriet Tubman to chronicle the stories of self-emancipated people), and Rev. Absalom Jones (abolitionist founder of my church @aecst1792 and the Black Episcopal church in general)!

Both Absolom Jones and James Forten organized the #walkout of St. George’s Methodist Church with Richard Allen in 1787! They immediately formed the Free African Society. That org church-planted Jones’s St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church and Mother Bethel AME, which was the seed for the first Black denomination. It also planted the First African Baptist Church, which launched the Black Baptist denominations. All right here in #philly.

#blacklegacy #mothersday #philadelphia

Philly is about to elect its 1st Woman Mayor!! Th

Philly is about to elect its 1st Woman Mayor!!
The top 3 candidates were ALL WOMEN!!!!! 😵😃
And the WINNER was a Black woman!!!
So, Philly is about to elect its 1st Black woman mayor!!!

I voted for @cherelleparkerphilly because she is the most qualified to be our next mayor, by a mile!!

1. She earned her Masters in Public Administration from UPenn.
2. She served in the PA House of Representatives (2005-2015) and chaired the Philly delegation.
3. While serving she wrote and passed legislation that allows expert testimony in sexual assault cases. (Imagine that. There was a time when that wasn’t allowed! 🫨)
4. She also passed the Philadelphia Tax Fairness Act, which has helped revitalize Philly neighborhoods!
5. She has served on Philly’s City Council for 8 years! During that time she led the passage of the “Philly First Home” program, which has helped people, previously locked into renter status, access the benefits of home ownership.
6. Since 2020 Parker has led the Democratic Party on the City Council.
7. As a Black mother she understands the economic and social challenges facing Philly’s most vulnerable young people.

It is time to give Cherelle Parker the reins, elect her as our next mayor, and work with her to help make our city flourish!

#philly #philadelphia #mayoral #election

I voted!! #philly let’s get out and VOTE! Our

I voted!!

#philly let’s get out and VOTE! Our mayoral primary will be decided by less than 1000 votes!! Your vote really does matter.

I voted for @cherelleparkerphilly , because she is the most qualified by far.

Get out and vote!

#philadelphia #primary #election

Shout-out to my Grandmom Ethel Weeks pictured here! She was riding my cousin’s scooter (in her 70s!!) #whimsical

Y’all! This is your next #mustwatch! The decol

Y’all! This is your next #mustwatch!

The decolonized analysis of #queencleopatra @netflix was STUNNING! Truly. Stunning.

Plus, I had no idea that Cleopatra died only about 30 years before Jesus’ birth. Never put two and two together before. This African Queen helped set the political context for the entire New Testament. (my revelation, not from documentary)

Meticulously researched through a decolonized lens, historians present simple genealogical, as well as cultural logic to make the strong case that while the Ptolemaic dynasty traces itself to Greece, they had been in Egypt and had intermarried with (pre-Arab invasion) Egyptians for 300 years—eight generations! So Cleopatra “was no more Greek or Macedonian than Rita Wilson or Jennifer Aniston. Both of whom are one generation from Greece,” said the series director, Tina Gharavi, in a piece she penned @variety to slap-back at white supremacist detractors.

Please watch this series. You will learn a ton. And you may even hear one more beam holding up the lie of white supremacy fall to the ground with a thud.

#queencleopatra #decolonizeyourmind #decolonize #africanqueens #africanqueen #cleopatra

This morning I boarded an Amtrak train and trekked

This morning I boarded an Amtrak train and trekked to DC to accept the #RickLovePeaceAward from @peacecatalystinternational and the Alliance for Peacebuilding.

I thought I’d share my acceptance speech here (and in comments).

Thank you, Peace Catalyst and Alliance for Peacebuilding. I am profoundly honored to receive the 2023 Rick Love Peace Award.

I half expect to see Rick come around a corner—always moving and yet deeply rooted in the shalom of God. Rick carried a deep peace in his core. That came from intimate communion with our Creator—the creator of the harmony ethic.

It is one of the great honors of my life to receive a recognition also given to one of my theological mentors, Dr. Miroslav Volf and Hurunnessa Fariad, who were each recognized last year.

When I was studying Human Rights at Columbia University in New York City in 2005, American peace-builders looked outward—Croatia and Bosnia, Kosovo, Darfur, Georgia. Those were the places that needed Human Rights and peace-building in those days.

In 2009, I traveled to Croatia for the 3rd time—to participate in a month-long faith-based peace-building “conference” with a group called Renewing our Minds (ROM), developed by @tihomirkukolja to bring together young leaders across Europe to train them in the art of peace building. There were Bosniacs and Serbs and Croats. There were Serbians and Kosovacs. There were Christians, Muslims and Jews. There were Roma. My roommate was a conservative Republican white woman from Washington state. I am an African American democrat—whose mother was a member of SNCC and dated Stokely Carmichael for a minute. To my surprise, we found that the most intractable divide among us was between us: the Democrat and the Republican.

Today, our democracy hangs by a thread. We need our elections monitored. Our courts have suffered corruption. We are suffering mass violence in our streets every single day.

(Continued in comments)

#peacecon2023 #beyondfragileground

I just clicked out of our quarterly Freedom Road c

I just clicked out of our quarterly Freedom Road consultants team mtg. We start and end each mtg with our one-word check-in and check-out.

We’re in the midst of a major season of growth and significant impact. Yet, it hasn’t been without its challenges.

As we checked out of the meeting my word was: “Grateful.” I am so grateful for the collective wisdom, the support, the integrity and the community that the Freedom Road team has become to each other over nearly seven years of working and dreaming together.

I clicked out of the mtg and looked up and saw Babe snuggling with her doppelgänger.

#grateful

I’m looking forward to reconnecting at my kitche

I’m looking forward to reconnecting at my kitchen table tonight!

Click in at 7pm ET for an #april #checkin on #alladatings (“all-a-da-tings”)

#phdlife
#ncgerrymander
#tennesseethree
#climatecraycray
#queencharlotte
Charlie’s #coronation

See you at 7!

Ah… academic stress. #forthejoy Clarification:

Ah… academic stress. #forthejoy

Clarification: Final paper in my first of four classes. 😉👊🏽

If you’re hungry for a good convo, scroll throug

If you’re hungry for a good convo, scroll through my videos and watch your favorite one of the 100+ convos we’ve had again! Then come back here and let’s us know your favorite #kitchentableconvo! 😃

And for extra credit, share your favorite convo to your stories!

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