PSALMS FOR BLACK LIVES | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Jan 16, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
Jan 16, 2023 6:00 pm
14th & V
PSALMS FOR BLACK LIVES | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Join us to discuss the inspiration to encourage the community to undo structural racism.
In the summer of 2020, while composing a series of devotionals on the Psalms for their church, the Double Love Experience, authors Gabby Cudjoe-Wilkes and Andrew Wilkes recognized that these ancient words spoke truth and inspiration not only to their immediate community, but also to the growing number of people doing the holy, demanding work of pursuing justice, undoing structural racism, and building a society that truly values Black lives.
The Psalms speak power today as they always have. They have spoken across generations. They have bridged cultural divides and social contexts with their emotional rawness, urge towards justice, and blunt candor about the coarse edges of walking with God. Psalms for Black Lives includes thirty devotions, each containing a psalm, a reflection, and an invitation for the reader to develop justice through further engagement with the text. Psalms for Black Lives also includes daily discussion questions to support small-group study and a guide for congregational and community groups who want to embody the words of the Psalms together.
Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes and Rev. Andrew Wilkes is joining the Busboys stage for a celebration event. They will be joined in conversation by Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes and Devon Jerome Crawford. This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of PSALMS FOR BLACK LIVES will be available for purchase before and during the event. Please note that this event will not be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books.
Reverend Andrew Wilkes is committed to the liberating, love-powered ministry of Jesus the Christ. He is the co-lead pastor of the Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, New York and the co-author of Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation (Upper Room Books, 2022), which is available now. He is also the former Executive Director of the Drum Major Institute, a social change organization founded by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and serves as the Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer at Generation Citizen. A proud alum of Hampton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Coro Public Affairs Fellowship, Rev. Wilkes is currently a PhD candidate in political science at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Freedom Notes: Reflections on Faith, Justice, and the Possibility of Democracy.
Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes is a pastor, leader, innovation strategist and author. She is a strategist by training and is the founding-co lead pastor of The Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been featured in Essence, Forbes & The New York Times. She is the co-author of Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation. Prior to pastoral ministry, Dr. Gabby was a publicist and event planner where she worked with organizations and individuals such as BET, eOne Records, Mathew Knowles’ Music World Entertainment, RCA Records and more. Dr. Gabby holds a doctorate from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity from Yale University, a Masters of Arts from NYU and a Bachelors from Hampton University. She is the Vice President of the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board and a member of the Morehouse College MLK Board of Preachers. Dr. Gabby is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority incorporated and is committed to the work of love and justice. She resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Rev. Andrew Wilkes.
Rev. Dr. Cassandra Gould is a native of Demopolis, Alabama. She an Itinerate Elder. She is ordained as an itinerate elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) She served as a Senior Pastor for 10 years in the state of Missouri and most recently served six and a half years as the Executive Director of Missouri Faith Voices, a statewide grassroots organization. Drawing on experiences from Ferguson to Ghana, Dr. Gould’s work is located at the intersection of faith and politics. She is featured in the film Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook and is a contributor to the books Preaching as Resistance and Rethink Church. She holds an M.Div from Eden Seminary and a DMin. from UnitedTheological Seminary where she was a Samuel Dewitt Proctor Fellow. She is the founder of “Beyond the Walls,” a digi ministry. She recently moved to DC and currently serves as the Senior Strategist at Faith in Action National Network and is an Associate at Metropolitan A.M.E.
Devon Jerome Crawford is the inaugural staff director of the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at The Center for Public Leadership. This Trotter Collaborative expands the civil rights and social justice legacy of William Monroe Trotter, the first African-American Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard and founding influence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). A scholar of African and African-American religious ethics, historical theory, the intersection of faith and politics, and social movements in the U.S., Crawford’s writing and activism have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, CNN, The Chicago Tribune, and The Birmingham Times. He holds an MDiv from the University of Chicago, a NAACP-Humanity in Action Fellowship, and he is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
