Black August: Nyle Fort and John Selders on Remembrance and Liturgy in the Black Lives Matter movement

August 09, 2022, 7:30pm Eastern Time

Rev. Dr. Nyle Fort and Bishop John Selders will lead us in an exploration of the grassroots liturgies of remembrance that have developed through the Black Lives Matter movement. In honor of the anniversary of Mike Brown’s death, we will particularly remember the role that radical respect for those killed by the system of racialized overpolicing and mass incarceration has played in galvanizing the Black Lives Matter movement. Dr. Fort will share from Strange Fruit Speaks: an innovative church liturgy he developed to commemorate the last words of Black Americans killed at the hands of law enforcement. He will also lead us in a reflection of John 13:35 – “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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Rev. Dr. Nyle Fort is a minister, faith-based organizer, and scholar. He works with organizers, intellectuals, artists, faith leaders, and community members to help build what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described as the Beloved Community: a global society rooted in the principles of love, freedom, and justice. Dr. Fort has studied, taught, and organized across the United States, India, Belgium, The Netherlands, Britain, Rome, and Cuba. His writing is featured in the Guardian, the New York Magazine, Boston Globe, Essence, Ebony Magazine, Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy and, most recently, There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love, co-edited by the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States, Tracy K. Smith. His scholarship has been funded by the Ford Foundation, Forum for Theological Exploration, the University of Pennsylvania, the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, and the Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity. Dr. Fort earned his B.A. in English from Morehouse College; Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary; and Ph.D. in Religion and Interdisciplinary Humanities, with a concentration in African American Studies, from Princeton University. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Columbia University Society of Fellows.

The Right Rev. Doctor John L. Selders, Jr. is a minister, organizer, musician and educator from Hartford, CT. He serves as the Organizing Pastor of Amistad United Church of Christ and the Bishop Presider of The Inter-Denominational Conference of Liberation Congregations and Ministries (ICLCM). Bishop Selders is a co-founder and leader of Moral Monday CT, a grassroots statewide organization committed to a wide range of social justice issues that is the lead organization for the CT Poor People’s Campaign. He also is the Assistant Dean of Students and Coordinator of Community Standards at Trinity College, a faculty fellow for the Center for Hartford Engagement and Research at Trinity College, and the Executive Director of Zezzo House (an 18-unit housing project). Read his full bio at moralmondayct.org/bishop-john-selders