August on Freedom Road
The World-wide Release of "Fly (aka Fortune's Song)"
Fly (aka Fortune’s Song) World-wide Release
“There is a truth that can heal us if we let it…” This is a lyric from the epic new anthem “Fly (aka Fortune’s Song),” Co-produced by Lisa Sharon Harper and Andre Henry, performed by Andre and written by Lisa with Common Hymnal’s Phillip Joubert and Vincent Charlow. Inspired by Lisa’s book, Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World–And How To Repair It All, “Fly” is a clarion call to truth-telling and repair in an age when state governments are legislating the suppression and twisting of history. Fortune Game Magee is Lisa’s likely 10th Great Grandmother. Born 1687 on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to an enslaved Senegalese father and Ulster Scot mother, Fortune and her descendants absorbed the terror of the first race laws on American soil. “Fly (aka Fortune’s Song)” offers all of us a way forward; daring us to dream of the healing truth can bring, if we let it.
Mixed and Mastered by Jay Kale and video produced by Art Hooker, we are honored to offer you this first listen of “Fly (aka Fortune’s Song)”.
Read Lisa’s story of how “Fly” came to be
Truth-Telling is the Work of Right Now
As we find ourselves in a pivotal moment in the history of both our nation and the church, truth-telling is the call of the moment. For a limited time (now - April 2024) Lisa is offering discounted speaking rates for truth-tellers like you!
Talk Title: “Truth-Telling is the Work of Right Now”
In a world that hungers for honesty and clarity, Lisa's talk delves into the pressing need for all of us to seek, listen to and tell the truth about who we are as a nation and as the church. With intimacy, humor and power Lisa models her truth-telling process by sharing her own quest to untangle her family’s 300 year story on American soil. She addresses the urgency of this moment, emphasizing how authentic storytelling can catalyze positive change. Lisa's powerful and engaging delivery leaves a lasting impact on her audiences, inspiring paradigm shifts that catalyze change.
For more information about Lisa Sharon Harper and her impactful message, please visit her website.
If you are interested in booking Lisa for your event, please fill out the Speaking Engagement Form to get started.
Lisa's schedule is filling up quickly, so we encourage you to act soon to secure her presence at your event. This is an opportunity to empower your audience with insights that are both enlightening and transformative.
On the Freedom Road Substack in August:
Decolonizing the Bible Webinar—Now 60% off!
We don’t consider what was lost, when we allowed Europeans to develop, write and commodify scholarship and thus theology. How do we reclaim the doing of theology as a necessary act of discipleship? How do we move the issues to a place and space that takes us beyond debates, winning, being right or wrong? Of what value are Jesus’ actions of love, faith and righteousness/justice?
What about contextual Theology, Feminist Theology, Black Theology, etc? Is there such a thing as “pure theology” is that the same as white theology or Eurocentric white theology? What does Eurocentric white theology have to say about Jesus and the gospels in 2020, that can help us make sense of the world in which we live? – What does it say or not say about the biggest problems in the world, like hunger, economic inequality, systemic injustice, conflict and war, racism and religious extremism? How do we understand God’s power and healing in a time of Covid-19, so that we live in social solidarity while experiencing physical distance? How does the gospel of Jesus help us to live more faithfully these days?
On the Freedom Road Podcast this Month
On this episode we are joined by Dr. Terence Lester, PhD, author of several books, including his most recent, All God’s Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity.
We invited Terence to speak with us because his book, All God’s Children offers practical advice for the next generations of faith communities that understand in order to move forward, they have to look back.
On this episode we are joined by Rev. Dr. Michael Nabors, Senior Pastor of the Historic Second Baptist Church of Evanston, IL. Recently, Second Baptist Church has become a leading faith center in America in facilitating Race Talk Solidarity Circles in local communities. Since 2019, Dr. Nabors has been part of the Steering Committee for Evanston Reparations, the first municipal reparations program in the United States, allocating 10 million dollars to Black Evanstonians to repair historical damages due to racism.
We invited Rev. Dr. Nabors to speak with us because the bulk of truth-telling and reparations work happening in the U.S. today is taking place on a local level. Dr. Nabors is doing that work. We need to know how his community is doing it, so that we can begin to engage the process in our own communities.
If you are a paid subscriber or a Patreon patron at the James Farmer level or above, you are invited to participate in a quarterly call with Lisa Sharon Harper.
Mark your calendar for the next two calls, and if you aren’t a subscriber or Patron, upgrade your subscription today, or join our Patreon!
September 20: 7-8pm ET
December 13: 7-8pm ET
Global Writer’s Group
Since April of 2020 as the world closed down, the Global Writer’s Group has been meeting via zoom every Saturday, with time off only for Christmas and New Years. Early in our time together, Lisa Sharon Harper charged the group with the task of “writing a new world into existence” and over time we have truly seen this in action. We have taken on the task of changing the world, and of course what changed first was ourselves. We as a group have become better writers over this time, but also better people, finding true community in the sacred sharing of ourselves with each other and the world.
We accept members on a rolling basis: it’s never too late to join the community. Prepare to find your life changed for the better as you sharpen your writing skills and prepare to bring your words to the world.
Collectively, we have published six books, have several writers who’ve recently become agented and/or are under contract for upcoming books, and many, many journal articles over the past three years with several more books in the works.
The Narrative Gap, as coined by Lisa Sharon Harper, is the distance between the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves, including how we got here and what it will take to make things right. In our world today, competing narratives vie for our loyalty, dividing society and the church, therefore making justice impossible. Our mission is help communities shrink the narrative gap, by identifying core issues and building community capacity so they might work toward common solutions for a just world. Here on the Freedom Road Substack, we can converse together on ways to shrink that narrative gap and help ensure everyones’ stories are told.
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