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Moscow | October 2017 From Manchester, we flew to Moscow, which Hal had first visited in 1959 as a member of the official USA-USSR youth exchange program, for an international African Studies conference. Hal was participating as presenter and panel co-organizer with his friend Dmitri Bondarenko, Deputy Director of Moscow’s Institute for African Research. Hal has been communicating with Russian scholars in African Studies since 1961 when the pioneering African American scholar, W.E.B Du Bois, gave him a letter of introduction to the Institute’s founding Director, I. I. Potekhin. Update on a significant change in the financing of research on Africa in Russia: the business sector has begun to assume some financing as the Russian government pulls back its funding support. Anne, on her first visit to Russia, was able to visit the Kremlin and Red Square and other historical sights while Hal focused mostly on the conference that drew scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the USA. We visited the campus of Friendship University (see photo above), established in 1960 to aid the decolonization process in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This university has provided students with training in natural, physical, and health sciences, as well as agriculture and other technical areas that were not available to them in their home countries and elsewhere in most of the world. Our visits to the State Central Museum of the Contemporary History of Russia and a large art gallery provided us with some glimpses into the rich history of Russia. We witnessed what seemed like a popular Putin and a busy Russian economy despite Western sanctions. Perhaps, our biggest surprise was at the iconic Bolshoi Theater, attending the theatrically innovative Hayden opera, ALMIDA (1783). We did not expect two things: (1) to see gay and straight couples and groups simulating sex on stage in a country well known in the USA for its puritanism, homophobia, and anti-gay laws and (2) to learn later that ALMIDA--or for that matter, no Hayden opera--has ever been staged by a major USA opera house, including the Met.

The BlackQuaker Project’s Anti-Violence Resource Guide for Quakers Confronting Systemic Violence The BlackQuaker Project aims, in part, to address the concerns of Quakers of Color. In the USA, at this critical moment, Quakers and People of Color are concerned for their futures. The omnipresence of police violence and uneven effects of the pandemic on communities of color due to systemic racism has resulted in the senseless murders of countless Black people and the increased risk of dying from COVID-19. The BlackQuaker Project has compiled a list of resources (resources to learn about systemic violence, places to donate, and additional ways to support the protests) for the Quaker community, paying special attention to resources that promote the Quaker values of peace with justice and equality with justice. Updated June 19th, 2020. Quaker Resources The Quakers of Color International Archive The Quakers of Color International Archive The Quakers of Color International Archive is a collection of videotaped interviews with Quaker from Palestine to Kenya to the Americas, documenting the stories, achievements, and concerns of Quakers of Color worldwide. This archive, based at the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst, is useful in understanding the experiences of Quakers of Color from around the world, and it can be found here . We expect to add other media in the near future. Readings from Harvard professors in African American Studies from The Harvard Gazette : Further Readings An open letter to white people just now getting involved in social justice, by Ijeoma Ouma. Letter From a Birmingham Jail , an open letter by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his time spent in Birmingham jail. In it he writes "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". These books on the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation reading list. The 1619 Project , created by the New York Times, aims to reframe America’s history by centering it around Black Americans and racial injustice. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization that shares their research on social and economic policy with anyone looking to address today’s problems and prevent future ones. Campaign Zero has a multitude of resources and data on their website that they use when advocating for policy solutions. How We Rise , a blog launched by The Race, Prosperity and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings discusses the challenges and work that needs to be done to tackle structural racism in the US. We found this post from Camille Busette particularly intriguing. Understanding the Policing of Black, Disabled Bodies by Vilissa Thompson and published by the Center for American Progress. Work in the Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework by Moya Bailey and Izetta Autumn Mobley. Listen What Matters is a documentary narrative mixed with interviews brought to you by the Black Lives Matter movement. The platform creates dialogues promoting freedom, justice, and collective liberation. Strange Fruit , brought to you by NPR and hosted by Dr. Kaila Story and Jason Gardner, explores the topics of pop culture, politics, and life as black and gay in the US. Intersectionality Matters! A podcast hosted by civil rights activist and lead scholar on critical race theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw. Code Switch by NPR talks about race’s role in history to today’s pop culture, and is brought to you by a team of people of color. Watch Free Movies and Documentarie s Educational Videos Available on Streaming Platforms 1/1 Donate WHERE TO DONATE Other Ways to be Actively Anti-Violent VOTE Register to vote here . Find your polling location here . Find your representatives here . The NAACP has set up an easy way to email your House and Senate representatives about COVID-19 justice and criminal justice reforms here . PROTEST Learn how to keep personal safety at protests here Learn how to find protest here Wear a mask! Support Black-Owned Businesses Buy from Black-owned businesses. You can begin to find Black-owned business anywhere in the United States by using the Official Black Wall Street or Support Black Owned directories, though they certainly do not cover all Black-owned businesses. Never Stop Learning Being active on social media and following the news is a great way to find resources, including petitions to sign and people to call for justice. Though there will always be misinformation, it is important to stay up-to-date and engaged on these topics instead of blocking them out. Connect Antiracism Center: Twitter | Instagram Audre Lorde Project: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Black Lives Matter: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Black Women’s Blueprint: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Color Of Change: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Colorlines: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook The Conscious Kid: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Equal Justice Initiative: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook The Movement For Black Lives: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook NAACP: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Showing Up for Racial Justice: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook The BlackQuaker Project would like to thank all the resources we used while compiling this list, especially the resource lists given by Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List , and The Harvard Gazette .

Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia | New York University | November 2020 Dr. Harold Weaver presented on his forthcoming chapter, “Decolonization and the Cold War: African Student Elites in the USSR in the Early 1960s,” in The Red and the Black: the Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic. Forthcoming University of Manchester Press, UK, Early 2021 at the "Soviet and Post-Soviet Histories of Race" event sponsored by the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at New York University.

We are thrilled to announce the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, a first-of-its-kind film festival that aims to educate all about the importance of Quakers of Color who for too long have remained within the margins of the Society of Friends and the wider world. From 12 February 2022, during Black History Month, until Paul Robeson’s 124th birthday, 9 April 2022, we will screen a film centered on a Quaker of Color, with an introduction from a guest expert and a follow-up discussion facilitated by BQP Director Dr. Harold D. (Hal) Weaver. Screenings will take place every other Saturday on Zoom at 1pm ET. REGISTER HERE Our Honorees and Media Click on each to learn more! The Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival is co-sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and co-presented with the DEFA Film Library at UMass Amherst , the Coolidge Corner Theater , and the Goethe-Institut Boston . Those to be celebrated include: Mahala Ashley Dickerson, Howard Thurman, and Bayard Rustin, three African American Friends featured in Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights (2011) (edited by Harold D. Weaver Jr., Paul Kriese, and Stephen W. Angell). We will also be celebrating Quakers of Color International Archive (QCIA) Interviewee, South African political leader, anti-aprtheid activist, and newly appointed QUNO-Geneva Director Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. The festival concludes by honoring prolific artist and human rights activist Paul Robeson and his two centuries of Quaker ancestors. Our first screening will be a unique event, featuring a landmark dialogue between Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and Palestinian Friend and AFSC General Secretary Joyce Ajlouny, the first two women of color to lead Quaker transnational organizations. The final screening on 9 April will also be presented at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Boston for a simultaneous online and in-person event. Our Guest Experts Joyce Ajlouney AFSC General Secretary & Palestinian Friend Dr. Stephen Angell Earlham School of Religion Johnny Gibbons Life-time law partner of Mahala Dickerson. Walter Nagle Bayard Rustin’s partner and adopted son Dr. Sa’ed Atshan Swarthmore professor, currently writing a book on African American and Palestinian Quakers Joyce Mosley Researcher and descendent of the Bustill-Mapps-Douglass family Dr. Mark Solomon Eminent historian. Dr. Harold D. Weaver Robeson advocate-researcher for over 50 years Write to us at the theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions about the Festival. Peace and blessings, Dr. Harold D. (Hal) Weaver Director of The BlackQuaker Project

Havana, Cuba | March 2017 Returning to Cuba for the first time since 1988, Hal was in Havana to discuss collaboration between his Quaker ministry, The BlackQuaker Project, and both the Cuban Quaker Peace Center and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center, both in Havana. The first: to draw upon Quaker testimonies of Truth, Equality, Peace, and Justice to offer workshops to Cubans on the lives of Afro-Cubans, including the impact of slavery in colonial Cuba and on contemporary Cuba and the second: to discuss translating and publishing in Spanish our collective anthology, BLACK FIRE: AFRICAN AMERICAN QUAKERS ON SPIRITUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (edited with Paul Kriese, Steve Angell, and Anne Steere Nash.) We are still hoping to reach an agreement with both organizations. Hal did not know what to expect in a Havana he had not experienced in 28 years, previously there in roles as transnational actor using film and tourism to aid international understanding and peace. Fidel, who had hosted a reception that Hal attended with other guests at the 1985 New Latin American Cinema Festival, was no longer there. However, Hal was happy to find that several of the major ideals and accomplishments of the Revolution seemed to be still functioning: the most comprehensive, free universal health-care system--and purportedly the best-- in the Americas; the Cuban Film Institute, which pioneered, in the 1970’s, the international truth-telling movement in films about the nature of chattel slavery in the Americas, in contrast to Hollywood’s romanticizing this exploitative phenomenon; and a free education system that has produced the highest literacy rate in the Americas. Disappointing: witnessing in the tourism industry, in particular, the return of the color bias prominent before 1960. Reuniting with Afro-Cubans in film and scholarship was a highlight of this 10-day sojourn, complementing the meetings exploring collaboration, allowing a slightly better understanding of Cuba, domestically and internationally. A big surprise: encountering at the Quaker Meeting in Havana students and administrators visiting from Westtown School, our Alma Mater.

New England Yearly Meeting: Sessions 2020 A Dialogue on Survival Dr. Amanda Kemp and Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Jr. LEARN MORE

Our Distinguished Honorees Our honorees range from 20th century trailblazing Friends of African Descent back to early Quakers of Color who are too often forgotten. Some of their stories will challenge Friends to consider what defines a Quaker, as we examine the lives of extraordinary people of color who were Friends in all but name, and ask ourselves what may have prevented or deterred them from joining the Religious Society of Friends. We will conclude with a special celebration of the momentous 125th birthday of beleaguered leader Paul Robeson, a descendant of over 200 years of USA and British Quakers. Click on the images below to learn about the lives and achievements of this year’s distinguished honorees. The Proud Valley Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star. Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver. Saturday, 8 April 2023: Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1978) and The Proud Valley (1940) – Celebrating Paul Robeson’s 125th Birthday Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star. Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver. Register for our remaining events BELOW Our SPECIAL Guest Experts We will reflect on each film with a post-screening dialogue and audience Q & A with eminent scholar-activists, writers, & historians, some of whom are descendants of our honorees. Learn more about our guest experts by clicking on their photos below. Bill Sutherland (1918 - 2 Jan 2010) Bill Sutherland (1918 - 2 Jan 2010), a long term AFSC leader, was important in the African and African American liberation movements. As a non-violence leader, he aided Ghanaian Founding PM Kwame Nkrumah and political leader Komla Gbedemah. He served Tanzanian founding President Julius Nyerere & liberation movement/leaders in southern Africa. With co-author Dr. Matthew Meyer, he wrote Guns & Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle, & Liberation In Africa (2001). Joan Countryman (b. 6 Mar 1940) Joan Countryman (b. 6 Mar 1940) grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. Sarah Mapps Douglas Sarah Mapps Douglass (9 Sept 1806 - 8 Sept 1882) was a prolific abolitionist, educator, and author featured in numerous anti-slavery journals. She was especially interested in educating young Black women about their bodies. She endured lifelong racial prejudice and was forced to sit on the segregated back bench in the Arch Street Meeting. She confronted racism wherever she encountered it, even in the Society of Friends. Benjamin Banneker (9 Nov 1731 - 19 Oct 1806) Benjamin Banneker (9 Nov 1731 - 19 Oct 1806) was a peerless astronomer, author, surveyor, and farmer. Born a free man of Senegalese descent, he helped establish the boundaries of Washington D.C. and even petitioned Thomas Jefferson on behalf of enslaved African Americans. He attended Quaker meetings for much of his life. Paul Robeson (9 Apr 1898 - 23 Jan 1976) Paul Robeson (9 Apr 1898 - 23 Jan 1976), the “beleaguered leader,” legendary scholar-activist, athlete, and “artist as revolutionary:” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and musical star. He was a descendant of over 200 years of USA and UK Quakers by way of the Bustill family, including fellow honoree Sarah Mapps Douglass. We will close our festival with a celebration of his 125th birthday. Joyce Ajlouny AFSC General Secretary Joyce Ajlouny has served as the executive head of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) since September 2017, overseeing the organization’s worldwide efforts for peace and justice. As a Palestinian-American Quaker leader, Joyce has been a seeker of refugee rights, gender equality, and economic aid throughout a long career in international development. She is a member of Ramallah Monthly Meeting and attends several monthly meetings in the USA. Keith B. Harvey Keith B. Harvey is the Director of the Northeast Region of the AFSC since 1992. He has led workshops on non-violence training, Criminal Justice history, and International Debt, sat on the Philadelphia Planning committee for the U.S. Social Forum; and served as both member and chair of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Board of Directors. Keith currently sits on the Massachusetts Peace Action Board and works with the MA Poor People's Campaign coordinating committee. Dr. Matt Meyer Dr. Matt Meyer is an internationally noted author, historian, and organizer of over 30 years. His publications include Guns & Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle, & Liberation In Africa (co-authored in 2000 with honoree Bill Sutherland). He is the Senior Research Scholar of UMass Amherst’s Resistance Studies Initiative and currently serves leadership roles with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and the War Resisters’ International (WRI). Joan Countryman Joan Countryman grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and, in 1958, was the first African-American graduate of Germantown Friends School. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. André Robert Lee André Robert Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, consultant, writer, and educator. André has served as a professor of writing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and teaches Filmmaking at the Germantown Friends School, where he worked to develop a film program for their students. His most recent award-winning film, Virtually Free (2021), tells the story of incarcerated youth in Richmond, Virginia, and is still on the festival route. Dr. Emma Lapsansky Werner Dr. Emma Jones Lapsansky-Werner is an Emerita Professor of History and the Emerita Curator of the Quaker Collection at Haverford College. With Gary Nash and Clayborne Carson, she authored Struggle for Freedom, a college text on African American History. Her current work includes: a history of a Bryn Mawr Quaker family; a study of a Philadelphia multi-cultural intentional community; and a biography of contemporary Quaker Chuck Fager. She is a member of Lansdowne Monthly Meeting in Lansdowne, PA. Joyce Mosley Joyce Mosley, author of Graham’s Gift (2020) has documented her family history of African American and European American Quakers, including the first mayor of Philadelphia. Joyce has presented her family research at genealogy conferences, including the African American Historical and Genealogical Society and the African American Genealogy Group. In 2019, Joyce’s important family research was featured in a WHYY-TV/PBS episode of “Movers and Makers.” Dr. Rachel Webster Dr. Rachel Jamison Webster is the author of the March 2023 book, Benjamin Banneker & Us: Eleven Generations of an American Family, creative nonfiction that explores ancestry, race, gender, & justice in American history as Webster and her DNA cousins discuss racial justice, genealogy, & stories of their ancestors. Rachel is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University, where she has received multiple awards for her design and implementation of anti-racist curricula. Pamela Williams Pamela Williams is an educator in the Burlington School District (VT) with a background in clinical social work & research, including instructional support, counseling, Restorative Practice, mindfulness in education, & coordination of service learning projects at local and international levels. Former faculty at Westtown School, Packer Collegiate Institute, & Stone Ridge School, she has also been an instructor at Bryn Mawr College School of Social Work and the Community College of Vermont. Gwen Marable Gwen Marable, is a retired educator. Her family discovered their relationship to the man known as the country’s first African- American scientist, Benjamin Banneker. Jemima Banneker, Benjamin’s sister, was Marable’s fifth grandmother. Dr. Gerald Horne Dr. Gerald Horne holds the Moores Professorship of History & African American Studies at the University of Houston. He is the author of Paul Robeson: The Artist As Revolutionary (2016) and has researched issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations, & war. He has written about the film industry. His courses include the Civil Rights Movement, U.S. History through Film, Labor History, & 20th Century African American History. Dr. Charles Musser Dr. Charles Musser teaches Film & Media Studies and American Studies at Yale University. Charlie co-curated a series of Robeson film retrospectives for the Paul Robeson centennial in 1998. He also co-curated the DVD set, Pioneers of African American Cinema, with Jackie Stewart and the catalog, Oscar Micheaux and His Circle, with Pearl Bowser and Jane Gaines. He has published extensively on American early cinema, Robeson, Micheaux, Bill Greaves, and Spike Lee. our director, curator, & HOST Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Alumni Fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, is the Founding Director of the BlackQuaker Project (BQP). A pioneer in Africana Studies in the early 1970s, Hal founded and chaired the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers University, through which he was able to focus attention on the neglected legacy of the great Rutgers alumnus: Paul Robeson. At Rutgers, Hal taught the first course in the world on Robeson, made an instructional film on Robeson’s life and accomplishments, and, most importantly, initiated the successful action to award Robeson an honorary doctorate in 1973. In celebration of Robeson’s 75th birthday in 1973, Hal organized the first Robeson symposium and the first Robeson film retrospective in the United States. For the past 50 years, Hal has worked to restore Robeson’s legacy to its rightful place in world history, through publications, lectures, films and film retrospectives, and symposia. Changed for life by his exposure to Quakerism at Westtown School and Haverford College, Hal combined his faith and activism into the BQP. He has produced several publications important to Quakers, including Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights (with Paul Kriese and Steve Angell, 2011) through FGC Press and the Pendle Hill pamphlet, Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice: An African American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives (2020). He has served in various Quaker governance roles with QUNO-New York, AFSC Board and International Programs Executive Committee, Pendle Hill, Cambridge Friends School, Friends General Council, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation. In 2022, he was awarded an alumni Lifetime Achievement Award from Haverford College. He is an active member of the Wellesley Friends Meeting, which sponsors his ministry.

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