Two weeks ago, I attended the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership (KGCCWL) 2023 Spring Conference, held at the Sheraton Airport Hotel here in Charlotte. What an honor and a joy it was to celebrate five years of the center’s existence and also to learn from women who are seeking to continue Dr. Cannon’s legacy of work in the womanist tradition.
To be clear – it was NOT a conference solely for Black women. But it was a conference that reflected the intention of the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership – to teach and lead and guide and transform the world from the perspective and experiences of Black women. Because when Black women are cared for, when we are elevated, when we are given equity and equitable chances for flourishing and thriving, then everybody else also is elevated and cared for and experiences equitable chances for flourishing and thriving.
In this week’s blog, I will share what the KGCCWL is, what it means to me and the larger church, and some of what I learned at the conference.
In order to organize my thoughts, I will use one of my favorite journaling techniques. It’s called “Ten Things.” It’s as simple as it sounds; list and describe ten things. (As an avid journaler and also a teacher of journaling as a spiritual practice, I highly recommend the use of this simple writing prompt if you are interested in taking up journaling. Your “ten things” list can consist of ten people you engaged with on any given day, ten emotions you felt over the course of the day, ten things you accomplished, ten people you prayed for, or any random set of ten things that come to mind. But I digress…)
Warning – this is a long blog. You may want a cup of tea or coffee or something refreshing to sip on while you read.
Ten Things related to the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership 2023 Conference:
- Reverend Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon was the first Black woman to be ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in our denomination, what is now known as the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). She was born and raised in the Kannapolis area of North Carolina and is one of the Reverend Dr. Jerry Cannon’s siblings. Click here to read more of her life story. She was an amazing woman. One of my greatest regrets is that I never met her in person. She died in 2018 after a brief bout with an aggressive form of leukemia.
- Rev. Dr. Cannon served as an ethics professor at Union Presbyterian Seminary on the Richmond Campus from 2001 until her death. She was a teacher, mentor, guide, friend, and companion to hundreds of students, including Black women who have gone on to become professors and ministers and doctors and non-profit leaders – all influenced by her deep spirituality, her fierce independence of thought, and her love of God and God’s people.
- The Center for Womanist Leadership itself was a brainchild and a heart-child of Dr. Cannon. She longed to create the kind of institute, a center for study and a community that would engage and challenge scholars, preachers, teachers, and others to see and understand the world and the church through the lens and experiences of Black women. Check out the way that Katie Cannon describes womanist theology. Listen to her deep and strong voice. Listen to her sensitive and thoughtful way of speech. And here is an article that goes into more detail about who she was, what she said, and how she influenced many who have come up behind her. Click here to see a brief video that introduces and describes the Center.
- I have the honor of being on the Advisory Board of the KGCCWL. I get to listen in on what the faculty and staff of the Center are thinking about up on Richmond campus. I get to learn about how the Cannon family continues to support the work that the Center is doing. I am honored to have been invited to participate in planning, organizing, and moderating workshops at the last two KGCCWL conferences – in 2021 and this year. There are some dynamic, powerful, beautiful, tenderhearted, inspiring women doing amazing work in the world, and being able to sit close to them and listen to their ideas, their hopes, and their dreams is a gift that I will never be able to fully repay.
- The conference theme for this year’s conference was a line taken from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film. There is a scene where the Matriarch in that movie is challenging her daughter at a time of crisis in Wakanda. She tells her daughter, “Show them who you are.” Show them your integrity, your power, your sense of justice, and your unwillingness to give up. Like Suri in the film, we were challenged, invited, reminded to “Show them who you are” – show the world who we are. We are strong, yes – and also tender. We are hard-working, yes – and also committed to taking better care of ourselves. We are intelligent, yes – and also we know how to have fun. We love God, yes – and also we love ourselves and each other. That theme, that statement will resonate with me and within me for a long time to come – “Show them who you are.”
- There were many workshops to choose from. One of the ones I attended dealt with Black Women Mystics in history. Often when we hear about mystics, if we hear about mystics, we hear about men, about the ancient “desert fathers.” What Dr. Paula Parker taught us in her session is that there are Black women mystics in our history and then she asked us to consider if we are mystics. Do we open ourselves for encounters and experiences with God that are beyond words, beyond reason, and therefore mystical in nature? Do we seek intimacy with God beyond Sunday worship experiences? Who are the mystics among us?
- Another workshop I attended spoke to the fact that play is crucially important in our lives. As Black women, we often find ourselves in situations where we have to take life very seriously. We have to show up and step up and always be ready to do whatever is needed to keep our families, our work places, our churches, our communities, and even our nation (Hello, Black women voters in Georgia. We see you!) afloat. That is exhausting, mostly unpaid, or severely underpaid work. So we have to learn or relearn how to play. Dr. Lakeisha Lockhart had hula hoops, crayons, yarn, paint, markers, crayons, modeling clay, coloring books, and other goodies in the room – and she made space for us to play. It was wonderful and joyful – and there was not nearly enough time to indulge in all of it. I hope to find new ways to play in the near future. I sure need it.
- As I preached two weeks ago, waiting on the Lord is another vitally important part of our life journeys. Tricia Hersey, author of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto, was the keynote speaker on the first night of the conference. Her physical presence in the space was commanding. She is beauty-filled and peace-filled and positively aglow with restfulness. Her voice lulled me and lured me into her cave of rest and peace. She read to us from her book. She challenged us to take to our beds and rest. Often. Here are a few lines from her powerful treatise on rest: My commitment to saving my own life via rest is rooted in my commitment and study of womanism….Womanism is what allows me to see rest as a tool for liberation. A global movement seeking to repair all that has been broken by capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. I know that saving my own life from the exhaustion of racism, poverty, and sexism made space for all, no matter their race, to also begin the dismantling process from these systems. My view of Black liberation being a balm for all our humanity is heavily influenced by womanism. I understand rest to be a spiritual practice because I am a womanist.” Whew!!! Her stuff is rocking my world and challenging the way I live my life.
- The most important and sometimes the most challenging part of any conference comes when it’s over, when it’s time to take all the learning back out into life. This list of ten things comprises only the tip of the iceberg of all that is simmering under the surface of my mind and soul as a result of attending the conference. I look forward to the long-term repercussions of those days with all those Black women and others who came to the conference.
- “Do the work your soul must have.” That was one of Katie Cannon’s most well-known statements. There is an enormous world out there with enormous needs. You can’t meet every need. I can’t meet every need. But if each of us leans in, listens to our own souls, and then if you do the work that your soul and I do the work my soul must have, then only God knows how glorious and healing and whole this world will feel. What is the work your soul must have? Please, for God’s sake, do that work. Do the work your soul must have. That’s certainly what I aim to do. Every single day. From this day forth and forevermore.
Thank you for reading my ridiculously long blog.
I hope you are inspired to journal your own “Ten Things” lists.
I hope you are inspired to learn more about Katie Cannon.
And I hope you will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ( 2 Peter 3:18).
Grace and peace, Gail