Mother Jones Illustrations;michel Christopher/abaca/zuma;malcolm Ali/whe image/getty;chip sornodevilla/getty What happens when dystopian visions of futuristic societies stop feeling like fiction and begin to resemble reality? A year ago, a group of us read Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents (read my blog3/1/25). What struck me then and disturbs me even more now was how eerily familiar Butler’s imagined America felt. Her novel depicts a society des

Golden Roulette Wheel Recently, we have heard a great deal about betting on clinical trials whether a drug will work, whether it will receive government approval, or whether a particular treatment will make it through the regulatory process. And when I say betting, I mean betting. I mean the same kind of betting we associate with Las Vegas: putting money down on an uncertain outcome with the hope of making money if you are right. Except this time, the wager is connected to wh

Southwest Art Center Quilt Festival My mother loved quilting and gingerbread houses. Perhaps that is why quilts have always spoken to me. They are far more than fabric stitched together; they are memory, testimony, and history sewn into cloth. They tell stories that books sometimes cannot. The exhibition at the Southwest Arts Center, on display through September 1, is a powerful reminder of that truth. These are not simply beautiful works of textile art. They are visual narra

REVOLT NEWS There has been considerable discussion in higher education surrounding Tuskegee University’s recent dress code policy prohibiting bonnets, do-rags, pajamas, and house shoes in certain campus settings. Ironically, what is not being discussed as widely is the simultaneous expectation around other forms of conduct and distraction in academic spaces, including the use of cell phones. At the center of the debate are two competing values. One perspective argues, “You ca

We See You. Do You See Us? This past week, more than 27,000 African American women including professionals, entrepreneurs, graduate students, and undergraduate students gathered in Las Vegas as members Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, one of the nation’s oldest and largest Black women’s service organizations. United by an enduring commitment to service, they demonstrated what collective leadership looks like in action. The timing of this gathering is striking. At a

Image: South Shigford Congregational Church many of you know, Motherism is more than a leadership theory to me. It is a theology, an ideology, and a way of living in the world. Today I had the privilege of witnessing a Yoruba ritual welcoming a newborn child into the world. It reminded me that, within Yoruba culture and I would suggest many African cultures a newborn is not simply born into a family. The child is received by an entire community and entrusted to the care of c

IMAGE: BLUE MOUNTAIN Day Celebration On June 21, we celebrate Father’s Day, a holiday that became nationally recognized in 1972. While Father’s Day is often commercialized and reduced to cards and gifts, it offers us an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the meaning of fatherhood, caregiving, protection, and love. As someone shaped by a Motherist worldview, I believe we cannot truly celebrate Mother’s Day without also celebrating Father’s Day. Motherism teaches that commu

What struck me most about this incident is that I rarely write about experiences so close to me, experiences I have just lived through. Yet this seemingly small moment was far more revealing than it first appeared. I was waiting in line at BJ’s to get gas. There were already several cars lined up behind me. Suddenly, a relatively new gray Jaguar pulled up against the flow of traffic, positioning itself to cut in between my car and the car ahead of me, bypassing everyone who h

Please share in your spaces and join via Zoom Join us for an evening of reflection, dialogue, and community centered on Black women’s healing through a discussion of We Deserve to Heal , edited by Patrice Gopo. This powerful conversation brings together scholars, writers, and thought leaders to explore healing, friendship, and the lived experiences of Black women. 📅 March 26, 2026 🕖 7:00 PM 📍 Education Building, 2407 Cascade Road, Atlanta, GA Attend in person or virtually,

Getty Images The real tribute in the recent moment of Michael B. Jordan publicly honoring his mother is not simply about a successful actor thanking his parent. The deeper tribute is to Black motherhood itself a form of leadership that nurtures, orders, disciplines, and champions excellence. Michael B. Jordan’s success does not belong to him alone. It stands within a long and global tradition of Black mothers who hold families together, who stretch resources, who insist on

Shutterstock I am listening to the State of the Union address, and I find myself confronting a hard truth: for people of color especially Black people this country no longer feels like home. If I am honest, perhaps it never truly was. The chamber tells its own story. Brown faces and Black faces are sparse, this time intentionally as a form of resistance and protest. Whiteness drapes itself in red, white, and blue. The chants “USA! USA!” ring with a certainty that has never fu

One of the gifts of the liturgical church is that it orders our spiritual lives in seasons. Each year we are invited to encounter God from a different vantage point. Now we stand at the threshold of Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent. Lent is often described as a season of repentance. But repentance, in its truest sense, is not self-condemnation. It is re-orientation. It is turning again toward God. The Prayer Book reminds us of “things done and left undone,” not to shame u

Television Shame How utterly and unforgivably pathetic. Once again, we are forced to ask not simply who are we following, but a more dangerous question: what kind of people are we becoming?From a Motherist framework, this is not merely a political failure it is a failure of care, of nurture, of moral formation. White America, how are you allowing this to happen? Is this truly what you voted for not only in leadership, but in spirit, in tone, in the shaping of the national con

image Michael Hammets This week has unfolded as yet another collision of competing interpretations of the New Testament and, more precisely, a public lesson in how Christians believe Scripture authorizes behavior. I deliberately distinguish Christians from followers of Jesus , because the gap between the two has become increasingly stark. I recall my mentor, Peter J. Lee , Bishop, once naming the fault line with clarity: it is either law and order, or peace and justice .

Well, it looks as if this moment has just begun. Here we go folks! You might wonder what I’m referring to. I’m talking about the political shenanigans now unfolding here in Atlanta and beyond shenanigans that are not abstract but visceral and deeply destabilizing. Atlanta has suddenly become a focal point in national tension. Fulton County’s election records have been seized by federal agents amid renewed scrutiny of ballots from the 2020 cycle, and rumors of increased ICE ac

I have spent the past three days participating in a Black women’s leadership summit hosted by an organization I love dearly. I entered the space with a clear purpose: to listen, to learn, and perhaps most importantly to unlearn in order to relearn. I wanted to pay attention not only to what was being taught, but to what was being assumed. The summit offered a range of strong, practical workshops Leading Boldly, AI for Leaders, Inclusive Sisterhood, Executive Presence, among

The World Is a Circle (lyrics Burt Bacharach and Hal David) “The world is a circle without a beginning,and nobody knows where it really ends…” Those words have lived inside me for more than fifty years. The song was written in 1973 by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the film Lost Horizon . I was ten years old then too young to remember the movie, too young perhaps to grasp its metaphysics but not too young to remember the song. I remember every lyric. I remember the melody

image: UX Gun Happy New Year, Is this who we are as a country? These are my limited observations as I listened to the press conference and followed the breaking news on Venezuela. From within my Motherist sensibility, a deep spiritual dread surfaced. I heard our leaderhip extol military dominance, power framed as righteousness, force as legitmacy, and killing as resolution. The logic was clear:might makes right. The experience felt disturbingly similar to watching a militar

It is a new year and a new day. God has entered the world Incarnate embodied, present, dwelling among us. We do not simply begin another calendar cycle; we step into Epiphany, standing beneath light that reveals, awakens, and calls us toward deeper purpose. The Magi, who are sages and carriers of wisdom, followed that light until revelation broke open before them. Epiphany reminds us that God still illuminates paths, expands consciousness, and invites us into new ways of seei

Black Box Gift A Great Gift I am naming what many of us already know: more than 300,000 Black women have lost significant streams of income in recent years many of them entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders. Forced lifestyle shifts, shrinking opportunities, and economic structures that consistently marginalize Black women are yet again minimizing our lives, labor, and leadership. We can debate the causes macroeconomic shifts, intentional political agendas that push Bl