Scarritt Bennett Center Blog
The storm is gone, but the “after the storm” is always here.
The storm is gone, but the “after the storm” is always here. - Deacon Julius Lee, New Orleans When I was a kid, all of the hype leading up to Easter overshadowed Good Friday and completely drowned out Holy Saturday. In fact, I’d never even heard about...
Read More“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.”
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” Matthew 6:34 Worrying can become a way of life. It can debilitate us or cause us to become hyperactive; it can harm our health and relationships; it...
Read MoreHospitality: A Way of Doing Justice
“Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ” -St. Benedict Is hospitality a forgotten virtue? Has welcoming the stranger, become too scary? Have we forgotten Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 when he separated the nations based on their actions regarding the hungry, those without clothes, the...
Read MoreFasting as Part of Our Lenten Journey
Jesus’ time in the wilderness was a time of soul-searching, temptation, fasting and prayer. His wilderness journey is often the model for many during the season of Lent. In an old hymn we read: “Forty days and forty nights you were fasting in the wild; Forty...
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William Barbee’s Story, 1964
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNAUTS4Cuo Following the Campus Grill protest in 1963, Scarritt College students continued to participate in civil rights demonstrations. In 1964, another explosion of demonstrations happened around the downtown area. Demonstrators focused efforts on some of the establishments that refused to desegregate, including Krystal, Morrison’s Cafeteria, and...
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Campus Grill Boycott, 1963
In 1963, the sit-in movement continued in Nashville with dynamic student leadership from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Scarritt College had been integrated for over 10 years, longer than any other predominantly white college in the area. Scarritt had students from all over the world,...
Read MoreReflections on Lent
“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” -Mary Oliver As the season of Epiphany and celebration has come...
Read MoreWelcoming Tennessee
by Kelsey Atwood, Belle H. Bennett fellow “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu Last Thursday night I had the opportunity to hear South Asian American activist and author Deepa Iyer give a talk...
Read MoreRacial Equity & the Arts
Racial Equity & the Arts *Hover over "here" to click on a hyperlink! Last October, I jumped into a pilot project called Racial Equity in Arts Leadership (REAL) launched by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, in partnership with Vanderbilt’s Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, & Public Policy....
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