Artist: Michelle Browder

Panelists from New Hampshire and around the country will explore the many dimensions of healing the racial divide during the 15th Annual Black New England Conference, Crossing River Jordan: Healing Racial Wounds through Accountability and Truth-Telling. Held virtually on October 22 and 23, with an in-person awards dinner on October 22, the conference explores legacies of racism, collective accountability, and collective healing.

The conference begins with a traditional healing ceremony. This will be followed by a panel examining how African American ancestors drew upon the beliefs they brought from their homelands to survive the terrors and abuse of enslavement and maintain an unwavering belief in their own humanity.

The next panel focuses on the function of public memory and memorials with a group of talented artists considering healing and reconciliation through art. While they may represent retroactive tokens of recognition and symbols of personal and social recovery, might these memorials also deepen lines of division and further open the wounds inflicted on generations of people?

Drawing on Dr. Martin Luther King’s metaphor of a bad check, in reference to the debt of justice owed to his people, another panel will examine past and present reparations projects, and what would constitute just and meaningful repair. Panelists will discuss the complexities inherent in addressing the issue and share their thoughts on why, more than a century and a half after slavery was abolished, reparations remain an emotionally charged and unresolved issue.

Saturday’s panels begin with the exploration of the role of organized religion in the African American community today. Panelists will explore religion as a source of spiritual guidance and of community activism, and discuss current efforts and future directions.

The trauma and brokenness that African Americans experience in a radicalized society will be the subject of the second panel on Oct. 23. Presenters will explore ways in which communities can engage in a healing process that will produce personal, relational, communal, societal, and global restoration.

The final panel of the conference will further consider restorative justice as a necessary component of racial healing. Presenters will discuss strategies, tools, and skills that can bring about collective healing, and describe a variety of restorative projects that have potential as agents of transformation, restoration, and social justice.

The Black New England Conference is sponsored by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire in partnership with Southern New Hampshire University. Sponsors include the following: TD Bank, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, University of New Hampshire, Center for Humanities UNH, Eversource, Wentworth Douglass Hospital, Delta Dental, Bangor Savings Bank, South Church UCC, Portsmouth Rotary, New England Blacks in Philanthropy, Centrus Digital, Enterprise Bank, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, and Episcopal Church of NH. Conference Ambassadors are Leadership NH, Manchester NAACP, Black Lives Matter Seacoast, Black Lives Matter Manchester, Black Lives Matter Nashua, Great Life Press, Global Citizens Circle, Southern NH University, City Year, Soul Purpose, Portsmouth Public Library, and Nashua Public Library.

For more information about the conference schedule and presenters, and to register, visit our website.

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