Besides strengthening Black Institution at Elon, the Black Lumen Project aims to forge meaningful relationships between campus and the larger Alamance County community through events and programming.

Events

Revisiting Rahab: Taking Another Look at the Women of Jericho

In spring 2022, the Black Lumen Project, in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society, in addition to numerous other university sponsors, organized a public talk by Kimberly Russaw, Ph.D., and a pre-reception gathering of community clergy across Alamance and Guilford counties. Russaw is a theological scholar and an associate professor of the Old Testament at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminar. Russaw is also an ordained elder in the AME Church. She discussed her latest book with 30 community clergy members, faculty, staff and students. Her final morning on campus was spent in a tea with women of color from the community who serve as faith leaders. The 2020 History and Memory report shed light on the multiple ways local faith communities provided support for Black students, faculty and staff. This event was the first opportunity for the Black Lumen Project to honor and acknowledge this legacy.

Programs

The Educator Summer Collaborative

A partnership between the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity & Opportunity and the Black Lumen Project, the collaborative provides a critical dialogic space for classroom teachers to examine their pedagogy, positionality and potential to increase student social and academic success through an examination of the writings of James Baldwin. Through the collaborative educators receive support as they navigate the pedagogical struggles of teaching and engaging race in the classroom. The support provided, helps to build educators’ capacity to make sound and culturally relevant instructional decisions.

The Power and Place Collaborative

While not sponsored by the BLP, the Power and Place Collaborative has been recording, preserving and presenting stories from and about people and places in Burlington’s Black communities. Launched in 2020, the project is a partnership between the African American Cultural Arts & History Museum, Elon University and the Mayco Bigelow Community Center.