Documentary Screening and Panel Discussion: Brick by Brick and Life Beyond the Rubble

September 24, 2022 | 12:00 - 2:00 PM

Scarritt Bennett Center Harambee Auditorium

In the early morning hours of March 3, 2020, an outbreak of tornadoes wreaked damage and devastation across the middle Tennessee. Several churches across Nashville were demolished by the violent storms, including North Nashville churches, St. John A.M. E. Church and Mount Bethel Baptist Church.

Brick by Brick documents how the Saint John A.M.E. faith community navigated learning of the damage their building sustained and making sense of their physical loss while remaining focused on the matters of justice that have guided the church from its inception.

Life Beyond the Rubble tells the story of the Mount Bethel Baptist Church faith community as they leaned on their steadfast faith in God in the hours, days and weeks following the storm. For this congregation, the devastation also re-centered issues of gentrification they have fought for many years.

Panel

Rev. Lisa Hammonds | Pastor of St. John AME Church

Rev. Jacques Boyd | Pastor of Mt. Bethel Baptist Church

Quentin Cox | Documentarian

Teresa Smallwood | James Franklin Kelly and Hope Eyster Kelly Associate Professor of Public Theology, United Lutheran Seminary

Emilie M. Townes | Dean and E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair University Distinguished Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society and Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Director of the Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative, Vanderbilt Divinity School

Sponsored by Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative, Vanderbilt Divinity School