The Overachieving Archivist: Teaching Social Media: #Charleston Syllabus What to Read to Understand

Interim President Dr. Brown invited me to accompany him and present the Charleston Syllabus at the Third District Planning Meeting of the A.M.E Church, Columbus, Ohio on November 6, 2015. #CharlestonSyllabus is a project I introduced to the Payne Community via library exhibit (see pictures below). Dr. Brown included me to use the syllabus to provide resources for the clery to address issues of violence in the African American community. That instruction did not sit well with me because it without nuance, it would see we were talking about Black on Black crime. Thus my presentation to upwards of 150 ordained clergy, instead addressed issues of race-motivated violence against the African American community.

My one-hour presentation analyzed how social media is used as a tool in the new academy, the origins of crowdsourced syllabi projects like the #CharlestonSyllabus and #BlackChurchSyllabus, and explored strategies for using these booklists for Christian Education in the local church. I also shared also free resources for online Bible Studies. Using the storylinking model in Anne Wimberly's Soul Stories: African American Christian Education I demonstrated how to incorporate social media in Christian Education and reach out to parishioners in new ways.

I began with an overview of the pitfalls and opportunities presented by social media, then went into a demonstration of how to use all the functions of Twitter using my own account to "Tweet" to Dr. Brown. Then I gave a history of the development of crowdsourced syllabi projects from #Ferguson,t he catalyst of what can be called the “syllabi movement”, is a collection of resources for teachers from kindergarten to higher education on teaching, understanding, and remembering civic unrest and social activism to #Charleston and how scholars are using Twitter to connect. Next, I asked those present to reflect on where they were in they heard news of the massacre at Mother Emmanuel and shared my own experience at ATLA in June. I segued into a discussion about the radically inclusive nature of Twitter, the founding of #Blacklivesmatter by three queer identifying Black women and the what the church must consider if it is to be relevant and participate in online conversations with millenials using Rahiel Tesfamariam September 18th Washington Post article "Why the modern civil rights movement keeps religious leaders at arm’s length" critiquing the Black Church

Next we went through Anne Streaty Wimberley’s four phase story linking process, explored the special considerations made for hosting online bible studies and experimented with finding cultural competent Biblical images in theVanderbilt Divinity School’s Art in the Christian Tradition. I also highlighted Workingpreacher.com, The Thoughts Room, Campaign Zero, and Mapping Police Violence in my Google Hangout/Google Docs hosted Bible Study that used images, video (Youtube), and a selection from Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s 1895, work A Red Record: Alleged Causes of Lynching featured on the Charleston Syllabus.

A bit of context for the Bible Study piece: I knew I wanted this study to reflect on the mourning mothers of children victimized by police brutality so I built on the story of my sorority sister Sandra Bland as the everyday story. Sandra Bland who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015 after being pulled over for a minor traffic violation on July 10 by state trooper. My biblical text is John 19:25-27 when Jesus tells his beloved disciple to watch over his mother from the cross. Mary’s child son is in trouble -- arrested, unfairly tried, condemned, and now dying, but she is there and Jesus gives her back to his beloved disciple to the church to deal with, to mourn with, and to love on. The African American heritage story is a selection from the Ida B. Wells-Barnett’s 1895, work A Red Record: Alleged Causes of Lynching featured on the Charleston Syllabus.

The presentation was very well received and I was invited to do a similar presentation in January 2016 at a local A.M.E. Church that is revamping its Christian Education program.