Black August: Steed Vernyl Davidson and Kazembe Balagun on Biblical Ethiopianism and Beyond

August 08, 2024, 7:30pm Eastern US Time

Our second session will feature Dr. Steed Vernyl Davidson, Hebrew Bible scholar from Trinidad and Tobago who serves as executive director of the Society of Biblical Literature, in conversation with Kazembe Balagun, longtime community organizer and cultural activist who serves as the executive director at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.

Working with Jeremiah 38:7-13, Dr. Davidson will explore how Ethiopianism contributed to the idealization of African and Africans in the Bible, as well as offering support for liberationist movements in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Mr. Balagun will offer a response based on his work cultivating the internationalist tendencies within the Black Lives Matter movement.

This session will be hosted by Black August Leadership Team member Rev. Dr. Carolyn Grice.

Logistical Notes:

Please register separately for each session that you wish to attend. Donations are encouraged on a sliding scale basis, based on what you can pay. All are welcome regardless of ability to donate. We are using a new “cart” technology which allows you to register for multiple events at once – please reach out to info@clbsj.org if you have any questions or technical issues with it!

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Steed Vernyl Davidson began his tenure as executive director of the Society for Biblical Literature in June 2023. Prior to that, he was most recently on faculty at McCormick Theological Seminary, where he served as professor of Hebrew Bible and held the positions of vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty. Dr. Davidson’s research focuses on the consequences of empire on the shape and reading of the Bible, using postcolonial and other critical theories to read and teach the Bible in diverse settings. He is the author of Empire and Exile: Postcolonial Readings of Selected Texts of the Book of Jeremiah and a co-editor of Prophetic Otherness: Constructions of Otherness in Prophetic Literature. His internationalist scholarship draws from his experience as a native of Trinidad and Tobago, educated in Jamaica, Boston and New York.

Kazembe Balagun is a public outreach specialist and community organizer with a focus on racial justice, housing, ecological justice and cultural history. His work is centered in building spaces for dialogue and education for community development across multiple disciplines. He has served as Education Director for the Brecht Forum, and Project Manager for the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung New York Office, and is now the executive director at the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem. He has have appeared and organized programs at Metrograph, Goethe Institute, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Weeksville Heritage Center, the Black Archives (Amsterdam) among other notable venues and organizations. Read more about Kazembe’s work here.

Rev. Dr. Carolyn Grice is a retired teacher, veteran union leader, community activist and Presbyterian leader in Omaha, Nebraska. She serves as chair of the Presbytery of Missouri River Valley’s Social Justice and Peacemaking Committee, and the Self Development of People Committee. She also serves on the Mission and Evangelism Committee and presbytery’s Leadership Team. Carolyn earned her M-Div from University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, her D-Ed from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and certificates in Community Organizing and Public Theology from the Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary.