Black Christians can lead us to a better future.
Danté Stewart articulates the resilience and faith of the Black community and calls for renewed vision and hope in his article, “Alright” (Breaking Ground, July 29, 2020).
It is important that we have and read such articles by hopeful Black leaders, especially those who are believers. Stewart shows how strong and resilient the Black heritage is, and he calls for artists, poets, and other creatives to join the effort to cast a new vision for the Black community in America.
He recalls the joy of worshiping as a youth, and wonders whether we haven’t lost that experience in all the distractions of our contemporary world. The article includes several works from the series, “Kin LIII“ by artist Whitfield Love, and these are a fitting companion to Stewart's excellent article.
Stewart insists that ours is “a moment of faith”, a time when Black artists, healers, and revolutionaries could rediscover the joy of Blackness and faith, and begin to articulate a new world where joy and beauty prevail. Such a “courageous act of imagining a world that has never been” should be the burden of all Christians, not simply those in the Black community. Perhaps our Black Christian brothers and sisters, sensing the opportunity, will lead us all to a better, more beautiful, and more joyful world. He writes, the language of hope “is not a theory. Nor is it even a point. It is a practice, a muscle, a discipline, a profound commitment to one’s future beyond resistance. It is to have in one’s body, in its place, that which we dream of...The final word on Black life is not brutality, but brilliance, beauty.”
If this article is a foretaste of what Danté Stewart calls for, then we can all be encouraged and take our place in helping to articulate this beautiful vision of hope and joy.