A virtual gathering.
The March 2021 installment of Vanderbilt Divinity’s Relevant Religion series: A Liturgy of Art and Social Healing, hosted by Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture.
We will envision the revolution outside of the ways we’ve been conscripted as we move away from theologies that accelerate supremacy culture. This liturgical service will include a spoken word performance by Joel Markus Antson, a sermon on politicizing both spirituality and revolution by Dr. Roberto Che, guided embodiment experiences with Erin Law, and music sung by Sarah Potenza. The liturgy will be followed by a panel with the four co-creators of the liturgy.
Watch the event here.
Connect with the Activist Theology Project on their website , Instagram , and Twitter .
Image description: The background photo is taken by Joel Filipe. It has swirls of gold, orange, yellow, white that looks like swirled paint, or a galaxy. It is overlaid with a dark blue hue, with the title of the event, A liturgy of art and social healing, and circular headshots of the evening’s co-creators are displayed with their names beneath.
About the co-creators of A Liturgy of Art and Social Healing:
JMA (him/his) is an encouraging spoken word artist and an aspiring therapist from Estonia. He is an MTS candidate at Vanderbilt Divinity School and studying Imago Relationship Therapy. In his music, JMA combines his love for therapy and social justice to produce soundtracks of hope, healing, and transformation. As he’s from Estonia, a country that regained its independence from the USSR through the Singing Revolution, he believes in the liberating power of the song and the people uniting in singing for a common cause.
jmantson.com | @jmantson on Instagram | JMA on Spotify
Erin Law (they/she) has a background in dance, somatics, bodywork and cultural studies. Their call and vocation is to facilitate educational spaces rooted in creative embodied practice that supports people and communities who are ready and willing to unhinge from supremacy culture and lean into collective liberation. She is currently Embodiment & Somatics Curator at Activist Theology Project. Erin facilitates and engages in practices, analysis, advocacy, and activism to contribute to the transformation and alchemy of systemic oppression/supremacy culture, toward the blossoming of a more resilient and whole humanity. Erin is indebted to her family, and all of her teachers, students, and colleagues who have challenged and inspired her.
You can learn more about Erin via their website: www.erinlawembodiment.com or Embodiment & Somatics Curator with Activist Theology Project.
Roberto Che, PhD (they/them) has been described in a myriad of ways: a scholar-activist, scholar-leader, thought-leader, teacher, public theologian, ethicist, poet of moral reason, and word artist. Among these ways of describing Dr. Roberto, they are also a visionary thinker who has spent two decades working in the borderlands of church, academy, & movements seeking to not only disrupt but dismantle supremacy culture and help steward the logic of liberation as a Transqueer Latinx. They enflesh a deep hope of collaborating in these borderland spaces where their work seeks to contribute to the ongoing work of collective liberation. Dr. Roberto is the Founder of the Activist Theology Project, a Nashville based collaborative project that seeks to work with the dominant culture and produces curriculum at the intersection of scholarship and activism. Dr. Roberto was named 1 of 10 Faith Leaders to watch by the Center for American Progress in 2018. Dr. Roberto has been featured in fashion magazines and appeared on many different podcasts. As a scholar-activist, Dr. Roberto is committed to translating theory to action, so that our work in the borderlands reflect the deep spiritual work of transforming self to transforming the world. As the Founder of the Activist Theology Project, Dr. Roberto is committed to the work of social healing through public theology initiatives, and writes & creates both academic & other valuable resources, including digital resources. Dr. Roberto is a non-binary Transqueer Latinx and adult on the Autism spectrum who calls Nashville, TN home. They are the author of Activist Theology, 2019, published by Fortress Press and the forthcoming book “Body Becoming.”
Learn more about Dr. Roberto, here. Connect with the Activist Theology Project on their website, Instagram, and Twitter.