Our calendar theme for August is Sacred Ground. Ideally, this would be the month when we would come together at any number of sites - marked or unmarked - to recognize and pay homage to a time, person or event worth remembering. Sacred ground or sacred spaces are holy to some and wholly important to us in Coming To The Table. When there is no gravesite present to humble us or plaque in our view to bring us to silence, we create our own sacred site or space at the table, respectful of all who sit beside us, elbow to elbow and even those we cannot see, but carry with us nonetheless in spirit. Our generations never leave us. History is always in the room. Together, we create sacred space, and if we do the work of healing and repair that we are called to do at this time, one day - when we are each no more than a distant memory - where we stand right now will also be sacred ground.
As we write this, members of our planning team are attending our first CTTT-RVA retreat, ironically unplanned. This week came to us like an unexpected gift, like most things that simply need to happen. Cloistered away in these wooded pines, once home to the Powhatan, we breathe, write, read, eat, sleep, laugh, mourn, celebrate and yes, plan what happens next. With joy, our team realizes that we at the table - each and everyone of us - are crafting the vision of what happens next. We retreat so that we may return more fully, energized by our mission and our shared goals. At night under the August moon and alone in our rooms, we listen to the crickets' age old song, and at the break of day, we watch the frisky dragonflies swarm kamikaze-like, signaling that transformation is ahead. Old and new, night and day - all necessary for what is to come. Our little band of co-conspirators smile and nod in silent agreement. On this August morning, quietly under the cloak of TODAY, we are boldly building TOMORROW - each of us right where we stand. So we challenge you now to take a stand - tell the story, cross the divide, heal the wound, take an action toward repair right where you are. Then feel the earth shake under your feet. We are standing on sacred ground.
Our facilitators are the "frontline" in the work of racial healing. We value them as not only the first face of our team but also the trusted guardians of our courageous yet often uncomfortable and clumsy conversations.
The facilitator sets the agenda, reminds participants of the ground rules (Coming To The Table touchstones), initiates the discussion, facilitates circle process, and allows the session to flow - modeling deep listening and fostering a safe and brave space - stepping in only when needed.
In virtual breakout rooms and at the table, facilitators represent the mission, vision and approach of CTTT. As a facilitator, you enable participants to share stories, learn new insights, and move through personal pain. Facilitators stand in the gap for change.
If this resonates with you, PLEASE REGISTER and JOIN US on August 19th to learn more about this rewarding volunteer opportunity. Be an architect of the Beloved Community!
Contact Bonnie to ask questions and/or register for this introductory session so that you can receive the Zoom info. We look forward to meeting you!
EDUCATION FOR ACTION
BOOK CIRCLE
(1st Thursday of the month)
Thursday, September 2nd
via ZOOM
6:30 - 8:00 pm ET
Throughout 2021, the Education For Action Book Circle is taking a deep dive into:
Black Reconstruction in America, 1860 - 1880
by W.E.B. Du Bois
For our September circle, we will be looking at Chapter 14 of the text, Counter-Revolution of Property.
Du Bois’ game-changing reading of the vital role of the enslaved liberating themselves and taking up arms in the ending of the Civil War should be required reading, especially for anyone living in the South. Join us as we continue to mine Du Bois’ analysis of the first reconstruction period for indispensable insight about how we understand and act in this Third Reconstruction moment.
So many times the question is asked “What can I do? The problem seems so large. Can what I do really make a difference?” Each act of individual repair is incredibly important because it proves that repair and reconciliation can happen.
Mentors play a critical role in helping young people discover their potential. These volunteers not only help kids overcome structural barriers to achieving personal and economic success but, they also help provide affirmation that their lives matter and that they are important and loved.
The Coming To The Table Reparations Guide has been recently released by the Reparations Working Group. This guide is a working document designed to “...provide a starting point for your journey of repair. Choose the path that feels the most natural to you, then follow your heart. Making reparations is not about checking items off a list. Making reparations is about breaking down barriers, building relationships, and yes, committing resources. This journey will last a lifetime. In making reparations, we begin the process of healing ourselves, of making our communities whole.”
Money makes the world go round – or so they say. Coming To The Table - RVA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization funded by generous people like you who find it in their hearts (and their wallets) to support this important work of opening lines of communication, healing the wounds of our past and building a just society. Some make periodic one-time donations when an event speaks to them, and some sustaining donors contribute monthly via Paypal.
Click the button below to read more about the following:
A generous donation from the Bob and Anna Lou Schaberg Foundation
Facebook Birthday event donations and how YOU can create one to benefit CTTT-RVA!
Grants that we are applying for...
An opportunity to set up an employee matching gift program where you work to support CTTT-RVA!
Our newest funding venture has been created in recognition of our very own Martha Rollins. This fund is called:
The Beyond Dialogue Fund
~ Supporting Racial Healing through
Cinema, Theater & Art ~
Photo, left to right: Marsha Summers, Danita Rountree Green
and Martha Rollins
This fund recognizes Martha’s true devotion to social justice in all areas of life. She is a proponent of using shared experiences of the expressive arts to take individuals both to a deeper understanding of the pain of racism and to a deeper place of healing. She has always felt that sharing a movie followed by courageous conversation can truly take us “beyond dialogue”— to changed hearts and minds, moving us closer to the Beloved Community.
With the creation of this fund, Martha acknowledges companions in the pursuit of racial healing, especially through movies and art: Tony Scott, Bonnie Dowdy, Barbara Brown and Danita Rountree Green. The donations collected through this fund will be used to support shared movie, live theatre and artistic events for the purpose of bridge building and crossing barriers that exist due to the “legacy of enslavement and the racism it has spawned," harkening back to our CTTT vision.
If you are interested in donating to this fund, please click the donate button below today, and be sure to specify that it's for the Beyond Dialogue Fund!
We are grateful for any and all of the time, treasure and talent YOU contribute that make a difference in our Richmond community. Thank you!
For August we will discuss Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams. As presented on the Goodreads site:
"Leadership is hard. Convincing others—and yourself—that you are capable of taking charge and achieving more requires insight and courage. Lead from the Outside is the handbook for outsiders, written with an eye toward the challenges that hinder women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make change. Stacey uses her hard-won insights to break down how ambition, fear, money, and failure function in leadership, and she includes practical exercises to help you realize your own ambition and hone your skills. Lead from the Outside discusses candidly what Stacey has learned over the course of her impressive career in politics, business and the nonprofit world: that differences in race, gender, and class provide vital strength, which we can employ to rise to the top and create real and lasting change."
Contactthe Reading For Change Book Circle co-conveners to be added to their mailing list.
Jonathan Davis is the new Manager of Marketing and Communications at CTTT-RVA. He is married with 3 children. He teaches Advertising Design at Yvonne B. Miller High School in the Department of Juvenile Justice. He is the owner of Sivad Dasigns, a graphic design business. A Mass Communications graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he has been actively involved in civic organizations and politics for all of his adult life.
Jonathan considers himself to be a civic minded community leader, a visionary, and a driven, success minded leader. He prides himself in having the ability to energize and inspire individuals to work toward achieving a common goal. He excels in creating consensus among divergent groups and looks forward to growing with the CTTT-RVA family.
Jonathan has worked on numerous political campaigns over the last 20 years and enjoys interacting with people from all walks of life. He currently serves as President of the Richmond Crusade for Voters.
He has a strong Christian foundation that was planted in Second Baptist Church. He later served in several leadership roles at First African Baptist Church and is presently a member of City Church. Jonathan believes that his love of people and his years of community service and civic involvement has prepared him for this opportunity. He is excited about the mission and the future of Coming To The Table - RVA and looks forward to a very productive relationship. Jonathan was recently featured in Michael Paul Williams' column in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Join us August 22 – 28, 2021 for Virginia’s 2nd Racial Truth & Reconciliation Week, which promotes the reckoning of Virginia’s past and the reconciling of Virginia’s present. It is an awareness week that aims to implement the Racial Truth & Reconciliation Virginia mission of empowering marginalized communities in the acknowledgment of truth to promote healing, reconciliation, and justice for children and families.
Join Coming To The Table chapters from around Virginia on ZOOM for dinner and small group conversation around healing the wounds of racism through truth and reconciliation
for children and families.
Rally and Unity March Toward the Future:
Living Dr. King’s Dream
Saturday, August 28th 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
We will march to Richmond City Hall from the African Burial Ground at N. 15th and Broad Streets. The event is inspired by Dr. King's March on Washington and the Performing Statistics art installation at City Hall.Join us as we rally and march for Virginia’s children, youth, and families, where we will recognize the past and mobilize present-day solutions to manifest Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.
Why Do You Give?
Do you want to see your donation increased?
Now is the time!
Click the Birdie link above and select
Coming To The Table - RVA
Birdies for Charity will add 10% to your donation!
All proceedsgo directly to bringing more programs to YOU!
Truth & Reconciliation ~ Remembering our Ancestors
DECEMBER
Giving Back ~ Reparations
SAVE
THE DATE
3rd Tuesday Family Gathering
We're looking forward to seeing you at the
CTTT-RVA
Family Reunion Tuesday, September 21st
More details to come.
Contact Hayatwith questions and suggestions. Let us know your thoughts on in person with distancing and masks vs. Zoom or a hybrid with a Livestream of an in person event.
(RVA)
SAVE
THE DATE
Racism At Work
(RAW)
In Education
with
Genevieve Siegel-Hawley PhD
associate professor, researcher, and author
We're looking forward to seeing you at our Racism At Work (RAW) Truth Session
Wednesday, September 29th, 2021 at 7:00 pm via ZOOM
The event invitation with more details will be sent soon.
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."
~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Racism At Work (RAW)
Our hard working RAW Working Group is pausing events this Summer to plan our next RAW Truth Series in the Fall.
Click here to find the Summary and Transcription of the May RAW Truth Session.
AND
Click here to read a recap of all sessions so far this year, expressions of gratitude for all who made this dynamic series on systemic racism possible, and reflections on the way forward into the Fall RAW Truth Sessions.
AND...We need YOU! Email our teamto learn about this opportunity to serve!
Mural Honoring Richmond's (and Virginia's) First Black Firefighters Unveiled on August 6th!
Mural artist Sir James Thornhill remembers the impact these firemen had on him when he was growing up in the Jackson Ward neighborhood. The firefighters distributed clothing and they knew the children and people in the community. They were the first 10 Black career firemen hired in the city of Richmond, as well as the first in Virginia.
The mural, honoring their legacy, is located on the side of the the Mocha Temple at 613 N. 2nd Street. It was unveiled on Friday, August 6th.
CTTT-RVA colleagues Jonathan Davis and Hayat Bain viewed the mural after the festivities.
Click the button below to hear from the family of one of those first ten Black firemen in Richmond.
THE CRUSADE'S FIRST IN-PERSON MEETING IN OVER A YEAR
The Richmond Crusade for Voters next meeting is August 17th at 7:00 pm at Club 533 located at 700 N. 3rd Street.
The meeting will also be carried on Zoom. The Crusade's mission is to establish VOTER REGISTRATION and VOTER EDUCATION in the City of Richmond and issue policy statements and institute such programs that will improve the economic, educational, general welfare and solidarity of the people.
You can attend the meeting in person or on Zoom. Click below to receive the Zoom info or for more information.
On view through September 6, 2021, the exhibition explores the aesthetic legacies and traditions of Black culture in the African American South as seen through the lens of contemporary Black musical expression.
Featuring more than 140 works of art, The Dirty South makes visible the roots of Southern hip-hop culture and reveals how the aesthetic traditions of the African American South have shaped visual art and musical expression over the last 100 years. The exhibition features an intergenerational group of artists working in a variety of genres from sculpture, painting and drawing to photography and film as well as sound pieces and large-scale installation works.
The exhibit looks deeply into the frameworks of landscape, belief systems and the Black body. Through the contributions of artists – both academically trained as well as those creative intellectuals relegated to the margins as “folk artists” – the foundational aesthetics that gave rise to the shaping of our contemporary expression are uncovered.
On July 27th the Richmond Public Library, in partnership with CTTT-RVA, hosted an author conversation about the book Cousins: Connected through slavery, a Black woman and a White woman discover their past - and each other, with Betty Kilby Baldwin and Phoebe Kilby, two courageous and authentic women. They shared their stories through video, reading excerpts and dialogue.
The event, hosted by RPL Law Librarian Meldon Jenkins-Jones, was well attended and the authors were very transparent with their feelings and stories.
Phoebe later wrote, "Betty and I cannot thank all of you enough for a wonderful book event last night. We appreciate all your hard work on our behalf. As Danita said, we are all cousins. So I am thanking family."
All authors' proceeds from sales of the book are donated to the Kilby Family Scholarship Fund,
which offers college scholarships to descendants of the people Phoebe's family enslaved.
