What legacy will you leave your beloved: your children, grandchildren, congregation, community, and/or country about how you worked to dismantle systemic racism during your lifetime? What will you bequeath to your beloved? What is your hope for their future, for Beloved Community?

One way to approach this is by writing a letter to your beloved: a daughter, son, grandchild, a future child or grandchild, the members of your congregation, or other of your choice. What will you write? 

As models, we have examples of Black adults writing to their Black children or nephew: 

• James Baldwin, in 1962, wrote A Letter To My Nephew as part of The Fire Next Time.
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, in 2015, wrote a letter to his son in his National Book Award Winner, Between The World And Me.
• Imani Perry, in 2019, wrote to her two sons in BREATHE – A Letter To My Sons (the UUA Common Read for 2020-2021).

Participants agree to read and discuss these three books and are invited to view any of the optional videos featuring Baldwin, Coates or Perry. In our last session we will read aloud the letters we have written to our beloved in which we discuss our attempts to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice to promote Beloved Community.  

* * * * * *

This group will meet for ninety minutes at noon on the following Fridays @ UUJAZ:

1. February 19, 2021: Discuss The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
2. March 19, 2021: Discuss Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
3. April 16, 2021: Discuss BREATHE – A Letter To My Sons by Imani Perry
4. May 21, 2021: Read aloud our letters to our Beloved.

The Fire Next Time: https://amzn.to/2GvYFAf
Between The World And Me: https://amzn.to/3ewh9xl
BREATHE: https://www.uuabookstore.org/Breathe-P18550.aspx

Get your books today and register for the course at the UUJAZ website: https://www.uujaz.org/store/p5/book-grouup.html

Questions to Steve Kraynak: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.