Last May, I got to be a tourist in my city with Odyssey Impact. From 2022-2023, I was an Odyssey Impact Fellow, one of fourteen emerging leaders selected from around the globe to participate in brave and healing conversations on challenging civic issues across lines of difference. Within a year, our cohort traveled to Rose Castle, UK; Cairo, Egypt; and Atlanta, GA. It’s only fitting that I traveled across the world just to make my way back home.
What does it mean to be a reconciler?
I thought I knew the answer to this question before I said yes to being an Odyssey Impact Fellow. After all, I’d served on the board of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. I’d stood in beauty and solidarity with the Navajo and traveled to Ghana for the Year of Return. Yet, my association with the term reconciler was rooted in the idea of reconciliation through a U.S. lens. A perspective bound by immense racial disparities. When I began the journey of having brave conversations with a diverse cohort of individuals of various faiths, nationalities, and social locations, it changed the way I see the world. Ultimately impacting the way I view home.
While in Atlanta, we stopped by the original site of Ebenezer Baptist Church, toured Dr. King’s home, and spent time at the King Center. This was a first for me, even though I literally work down the street from this site almost every day, serving folks impacted by homelessness. Below, you’ll find snapshots of these sacred spaces and a few of my favorite faces from Odyssey Impact!
To be a reconciler, perhaps in these moments it means viewing familiar surroundings with a new perspective. It is the ability to hold Dr. King’s legacy and humanity simultaneously. And in a city I call home, it also means being a tourist sometimes while understanding that the pursuit of peace requires learning from others and listening to their experiences. I am grateful for the opportunity to do so alongside individuals who are committed to The Dream, and who share the desire to be the change they want to see in the world. Each of us embracing that…
We will not be satisfied
Until justice rolls down like water
And righteousness
Like a mighty stream
Martin Luther King, Jr.
This is my offering.
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Do you enjoy reading stories like this? I am currently working on developing Agency, a community archive based in Atlanta that aims to digitally house the stories of people affected by homelessness. I would like to invite you to support my initiative by liking and sharing this post, and also by contributing to my Buy Me A Coffee Campaign. Thank you!