Liberation and Mass Incarceration: A Juneteenth Townhall
We are honored to partner with the Exodus Foundation, the Baptist Ministers Conference of Richmond and Vicinity and other local and statewide organizations to kick off Tubman Tuesdays, along with commemorating “Juneteenth” on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 7 p.m.
Juneteenth-also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day is a holiday celebrating the liberation of African Americans from slavery held for many centuries. It is also a time to celebrate the resilience of a people that had been caught up in a system of enslavement to be finally free. While the holiday has gained some recognition, there is still a lack of knowledge of its origins and the importance in the overall history of America. Tubman Tuesdays is an initiative started by members of the Save Robert Green Coalition to bring about meaningful change in policy and legislation as it relates to freeing incarcerated persons whose nonviolent violations do not fit the prison term they received. The goal is to give deserving incarcerated persons a second chance at rejoining their families and communities to live productive lives.
Join us for a dynamic conversation about Juneteenth and its recognition of the holiday and maybe the new channel of bondage as it relates to mass incarceration of black and brown communities. You will hear from Dr. Madeline McClenney, President of Exodus Foundation, who has made it her life work to serve the underserved prison population on their way to freedom, Omilade Janine Bell, the founding president and artistic director of Elegba Folklore Society and the producer of Richmond’s longest standing Juneteenth Celebration, Allan-Charles Chipman, IofC USA’s Faith Rooted Organizer and Strategist, who runs programming for faith community, equipping them with the tools to think theologically and logically about race and the history of Richmond and America as a whole.
Register for the Townhall below:
Townhall Speakers Bios
OMILADE JANINE BELL is the founder and president of Elegba Folklore Society, Inc. Omilade (oh-meelahDEH) Janine (jan [like tan] neen) Bell is an artist, a producer, an arts administrator and a folklorist/cultural historian. From its downtown Richmond, Virginia cultural center, the Society makes an educational, social, economic and spiritual impact. Bell produces the Society’s annual events including Juneteenth: A Freedom Celebration, the Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folklife and the Capital City Kwanzaa Festival. Elegba Folklore Society also offers performances of African dance, music and theatre, engagement is the visual arts and a menu of cultural history tours including, In the Beginning… Virginia, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans for which Ms. Bell provides artistic direction, performance and interpretation. Ms. Bell holds a degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a recipient of UNC’s Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Alumna Award, the Teresa Pollak
Prize for Excellence in the Arts, the Belle Women in the Arts Award, the A Woman of Richmond Who Rocks award and the 2019 Richmond History Maker Award. From the Yoruba (YOUR - ruh - bah) cosmology of West Africa, Elegba is the Orisa (or – REE - shah) or intercessor who opens the roads bringing clarity out of confusion. Elegba Folklore Society hopes its programs and services are indeed road-opening experiences for its audiences.
Embrace the Spirit!
ALLAN-CHARLES CHIPMAN is a lifelong faith community activist, having started his work at the ripe age of six in his hometown of Baltimore, when he was inspired by a group of pastors working to connect their congregations to their communities through service. As I of C’s Faith-Rooted Organizer, Allan runs programming for faith communities, equipping them with the tools to think theologically and logically about race and the history of Richmond and America as a whole.
During college, Allan engaged with faith communities to change society through mentorship programs and helped to establish a faculty/student collaborative organization called Reconciliation and Conversation for Everyone (R.A.C.E.). Allan has also worked in the corporate world, where he advocated to build an African-American network to strive for racial equity at one of Richmond’s Fortune 500 companies. He also acted as liaison between minority employees and the human resources department when issues involving race arose.
Allan earned his bachelor’s degree in human development and family science from Messiah College. In his free time, Allan enjoys creating music and recording for his podcast dedicated to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called A Difference in Thought.
DR. MADELINE MCCLENNEY is the president and founder of Exodus Foundation.org. The mission of the foundation is to stop the flow of African-Americans to prison. She is a mass clemencyist, a term she coined, and a prison abolitionist. She is also an ordained Baptist minister. She completed a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, and a Master of Divinity Degree at Howard University where she was an active advocate for the homeless. She earned a Ph.D in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies in 2001, from Duke University with minors in Women’s Studies and Islamic Law. In 1999, she founded Exodus Foundation.org, a national Christian faith-based charity headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. which serves people of all faiths or no faith at all. Its banner program is a 24-hour re-entry mentoring program for adults known as the Red Sea Crossings Mentoring and Scholarship Program which provides personal growth coaching, career coaching, job placement, behavioral and street escape support and a host of therapeutic friendship interventions. In 2012, after a national search of over 300 agenices, the Open Society Institute and Frontlines Solutions recognized Exodus Foundation.org as one of eleven top organizations leading in black male achievement. In 2018, she was a Visiting Professor at Duke Divinity School where she taught “Jesus and Moses on Death Row.” Dr. McClenney is one of several nationally known contributors to the 2011 Judsen Press release Ministry with Prisoners and Families: The Way Forward, a groundbreaking tool for pastors and congregations. In 2015, Judsen Press released Church
On Purpose where Dr. McClenney’s chapter appeared entitled, “Believers Unchained: Why Christians Must Abolish Prisons or Stop Preaching the Gospel.” In 2019, with support from the Lilly Endowment, she was trained as a circle facilitator by the International Institute on Restorative Practices. Dr. McClenney is the chief strategist and creator of the “Time’s Up- Let Me Go!” Campaign and Rally, an effort to support presidential grants of clemency to federal prisoners with exceedingly harsh sentences. The rally was held in Washington, D.C. on October 12, 2016 in front of the White House with national sponsors and local advocates for prison and sentencing reform. Dr. McClenney designed and authored the Exodus Coalition Plan which is endorsed by 48 subject matter experts and agencies. It called for a President to release all nonviolent federally convicted and overcharged persons before he left office. On Juneteenth 2018, she launched the “National Let My People Go Preaching Tour” making stops in over 14 churches as she continues to tour. God sees. Therefore, she will not faint during the pandemic. Rev. Dr. McClenney calls this season a kairodemic, an opportune global moment. The tour must resume until mass incarceration is dismantled by mass clemency.