bell hooks teaches that we must speak up about what has happened to us in order to recover and realize ourselves. We must speak up about the pain, how we have been humiliated and degraded. And we must also speak up and testify about the good and how we have gotten over. Join the Kinky Curly Theological Collective for our Tuesday night series, Talking Back. This series will feature four Black women who will be sharing from the depth of their experience on spirituality, sexuality, and the societal expectations of Black and African women, in order to present accurate narratives about who we are.
Each session will be held on Tuesdays, starting August 11 from 6.30 – 8.30 p.m. Each session will open up with a grounding meditation and will close with an opportunity for participants to process their experience through writing. Find out more about each presenter and register at the links listed below in order to get the zoom login. While all sessions are open to the public, they will each intentionally center the experience of Black women and transgender/gender noncomforming identities.
with Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde (register)
Tuesday, August 11
Pamela Yetunde, J.D., Th.D. is a pastoral counselor (www.centeroftheheart.org) and teaches pastoral care and counseling at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She conceived and edited the “Theology of Prince” project. She is author of Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology (2018), Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care (2020) and Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom (December, 2020).
The Gospel According to a Black Woman
with Ebony Adedayo (register)
Tuesday, August 18
Ebony Adedayo is the founder and creator of the Kinky Curly Theological Collective, a space that centers African and African American women. In this work, she has gathered women of African ascent to build out a theological pedagogy, grounded in healing and liberation, and based in their own experiences and expertise. This collective includes women of various faith and cultural backgrounds, each who embodies a commitment to using the lens of spirituality to uproot systems of oppression. In addition, she is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction, with minors in Culture and Teaching and African American and African Studies.
Ebony holds a Bachelor of Arts in Pastor Studies from North Central University and a Master of Arts in Global and Contextual Studies from Bethel Seminary. Ebony is the author of Dancing on Hot Coals, Embracing a Holistic Faith: Essays on Biblical Justice, and the Gospel According to a Black Woman (Fall 2020). You can find more of her work at http://www.ebonyjohanna.com, including her recent blog series on the 2019 Year of Return.
Creating a divine space through music, art, and dance.
with Ife Olatunji (register)
Tuesday, August 25
Ife is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and film critic. Ife completed her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK (10) after creating a short documentary on daily life for girls in Rajasthan India. Ife has taught documentary film production at the Art Institute of Wisconsin and Facets Multimedia of Chicago. Through a fellowship with Kartemquin she developed an observational project focusing on three girls and their mothers in Chicago. The following year Ife received an award from the city of Chicago to create an Ethnographic film festivestival with the partnership of Community Film Workshop. Collected Voices is currently a community partner of University of Chicago. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Ife believes race and gender should not be categories of a film festival, but rather the very topics the film seeks to explore. CollectedVoicesFilmFest.com
Ife continues to conduct visual anthropology and performance art, film experiences. Her most recent project explores the African American relationship to west Africa through music, and dance. You can see more of her portfolio at FreedomLoverFilms.com
with Dr. Crystal Moten (register)
Tuesday, September 1
Dr. Crystal Moten is a Black Feminist Historian who focuses on Black women’s economic justice related to activism in the urban Midwest. She currently works as a public historian in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: National Museum of American History, 2019
Arleta Little is a poet and writer living and working in Minneapolis. Her literary work can be found in Blues Vision: African American Writing From Minnesota (2015) and in Hope in the Struggle: A Memoir of the Life of Dr. Josie Johnson (2019). She currently serves as an Arts Program Officer and the Director of the Artist Fellowships at the McKnight Foundation. Prior to working in philanthropy, she served as the Executive Director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature and continues to be dedicated to advancing and celebrating African American literature and writers. Committed to establishing racial equity and justice in Minnesota, she also serves on the board of Headwaters Foundation for Justice.
Kinky Curly Theological Collective 
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