15th Annual Black New England Conference

Crossing River Jordan: Healing Racial Wounds Through Accountability & Truth-Telling

A Virtual/Hybrid Conference

October 22-23, 2021

Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH

#BNEC2021

Traditional African spirituality acknowledges that there is no real separation between the spiritual and the rich fabric of everyday life. In this traditional worldview, spirituality informs everything including politics, economics, survival, healing, death and rebirth.

The 2021 Black New England Conference explores paths forward from legacies of racism to collective accountability and collective healing. Presenters will examine the ongoing impacts of enslavement, murder, mass incarceration, unethical medical experimentation, disenfranchisement, and the many more harms perpetrated against people of African descent and the ways traditional spiritual and religious practices serve as sources of strength, hope, resistance, and healing for Black people in the centuries-long struggle for justice. We will also delve into past and present-day efforts to gain reparations and the healing inherent in proper memorialization of accurate history.

CONFERENCE PANELS INCLUDE

  • The Past Is Not Past: Historical Black Practices of Survival & Claims to Freedom
  • A Check Uncashed: Past & Present Projects for Reparations
  • Tell It True: Healing Through Public Memory & Memorials
  • My Home Is Over Jordan: The Role of Religion & Spirituality in Black Healing
  • The Right to Be Whole: New Modes for Healing Generational & Historical Black Trauma
  • I’ll Fly Away: How We Move Forward from Here

More information coming soon!

Past Conferences

2020 BNEC, BLACK WOMEN ROCK: Leading the Charge for Social and Political Change
2019 BNEC, BLACK INK: African American News from Slave Songs to Social Media
2018 BNEC, EXPRESS YOURSELF: Identity, Style & Adornment
2017 BNEC, THE SCIENCE & ENGINEERING OF RACE: Living Through the Archives
More past conferences