FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE! Local non-profit announces first-ever Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. oratorical contest for Phoenix! Phoenix, Arizona - Fourth and fifth-grade students from the Phoenix area will gather on Saturday, January 16, 2027, to reimagine Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for hope at the first annual MLK Speak Up! Oratory Tournament. The event will be held in Phoenix at a to-be determined location. Multiple students will share original speeches responding to the qu

JULY 27 UPDATES The MLK 2027 Speak UP Oratory Tournament invites fourth- and fifth-grade students from Phoenix area schools to write and deliver original 3–5-minute speeches based on a pre-selected topic inspired by Dr. King’s teachings. The goal is to encourage critical thinking, writing and speaking, while connecting students to Dr. King’s ideals of justice, equality, and hope. Most of all, these students will release their inner public-speaking genius by finding their voic

Here's a sobering fact: Since Arizona voters approved the observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in November 1992, leading to the first official state celebration on January 18, 1993, Phoenix has yet to host a major oratorical contest honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While local and statewide annual celebrations feature essay and poster contests, parades, and other symposiums, a dedicated youth oratory competition would be new to the city. That’s about to change! A steer

January 16, 2027! The MLK 2027 Speak UP Oratory Tournament invites fourth- and fifth-grade students from Phoenix area schools to write and deliver original 3–5-minute speeches based on a pre-selected topic inspired by Dr. King’s teachings. The goal is to encourage critical thinking, writing and speaking, while connecting students to Dr. King’s ideals of justice, equality, and hope. Most of all, these students will release their inner public-speaking genius by finding their vo

The MLK Speak Up! Oratory Tournament is coming to Phoenix next Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, January 2027! What is the MLK 2027 Speak Up Tournament About? The MLK 2027 Speak UP Oratory Tournament invites fourth- and fifth-grade students from Phoenix area schools to write and deliver original 3–5-minute speeches based on a pre-selected topic inspired by Dr. King’s teachings. The goal is to encourage critical thinking, writing and speaking, while connecting students to D

Mental health has always been a hush-hush topic in the Black community for a myriad of reasons. Not too long ago, I came across a statistic as jarring as it is painful. In an essay entitled Mental Health in Black Communities: Challenges, Resources, Community Voices, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the leading grassroots organization on Black mental health, shared: 63% of African Americans believe seeking mental health treatment is a sign of weakness. It's jarr

SPEAK UP! 2027 What is the MLK 2027 Speak Up Tournament About? The MLK 2027 Speak UP Oratory Tournament Planning Committee invites fourth- and fifth-grade students from Phoenix area schools to write and deliver original 3–5-minute speeches based on a pre-selected topic inspired by Dr. King’s teachings. The goal is to encourage critical thinking, writing and speaking, while connecting students to Dr. King’s ideals of justice, equality, and hope. Most of all, these students wil

Hebrews 10:39 reads: "But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved." In his book, Faces at the Bottom of the Well, The Permanence of Racism, the late Dr. Derrick Bell, who at the time was visiting professor at New York University, shared his thoughts on the men and women with whom he worked with on the problems of human life, particularly as it related to the legal aspect of the struggle for peace and justice in Am

Micah 6:8, Jeremiah 22:3, Luke 4:16 “Speaking truth to power” is a term that has been in circulation for a very long time. I recently heard it while attending a community forum which centered around democracy at the intersection of America’s two hundred and fiftieth birthday. The panel was discussing ways in which common people can work together to protect the vulnerable from the advances of what many people are calling the “undermining of democracy”. In the first seventeen m

America is a democracy because Black people demanded it. In a recent series I called Crucial Conversations: Important Issues for Black Faith, I talked about four issues I feel are endemic to the African American context of faith and culture: mental health, suicide ideation, domestic violence and faith and politics. The fourth topic, faith and politics, spurred me to pose a question germane to the entire argument of whether Black Christians can ever afford to “sit out” politic

We continue our new series as we pause to reflect, from a theological perspective, on National Mental Health Awareness Month. I have named this series Crucial Conversations because I believe it is incumbent for us to create a dialogue among the faithful about the many issues we confront in this new century, which is just a quarter old, yet resonates with stupendous change, momentous challenge and tremendous complexity. In week one, we asked, We Are Saved, But Are We Well? ba

In our pluralistic, secular-based and information drenched society, what are the challenges that face Black Christian youth and how may the church respond? I suggest the challenges are varied and complex and demand no less a response from church leadership in the twenty-first century. From academic performance to dating to where to attend college to parenting and sibling conflict, there is a single thread that can determine a teen’s success or failure: communication. African

We continue our new series as we pause to reflect, from a theological perspective, on National Mental Health Awareness Month. I have named this series Crucial Conversations because I believe it is incumbent for us to create a dialogue among the faithful about the many issues we confront in this new century, which is just a quarter old, yet resonates with stupendous change, momentous challenge, and tremendous complexity. In week one, we asked, We Are Saved, But Are We Well?, b

We continue our new series as we pause to reflect, from a theological perspective, on National Mental Health Awareness Month. I have named this series Crucial Conversations because I believe it is incumbent for us to create a dialogue among the faithful about the many issues we confront in this new century, which is just a quarter old, yet resonates with stupendous change, momentous challenge, and tremendous complexity. In week one, we asked, We Are Saved, But Are We Well? 3

Today, we begin a new series as we pause to reflect, from a theological perspective, on National Mental Health Awareness Month. I have named this series Crucial Conversations because I believe it is essential that we create a dialogue among the faithful about the many issues we confront in this new century, which is just a quarter old yet resonates with stupendous change, momentous challenge, and tremendous complexity. More importantly, we need to have crucial conversations a

Over this six-part series, we have been following this loose band of believers from the early hours after the resurrection of Jesus. So far, we have observed them as being gripped by fear, uncertainty and doubt; they are still coping with the death of Christ and don’t quite know what to make of reports of his resurrection. Some believed, others did not believe as quickly. Some locked themselves behind closed doors, in fear of the Jews (John 20:19-31). Others coped by going fi

In Book Notes: Stories From American History, H.W. Brands, Professor of History, Texas A&M reflects on how, in the 1890s, America had a definite sense that something important was ending and something far greater was beginning. America had just celebrated its one hundredth anniversary and there was, writes, Brands, a feeling that the frontier phase of American history was ending. “The frontier had vanished, so Americans had this notion that they were running up against the en

The 'watch' principle that crisscrosses the Bible is positioned in a garden, where a praying Christ, hours before His crucifixion, rouses a sleeping church to action. The text takes place pre-resurrection, but Christ points us here to the power and the purpose of the church’s post-resurrection mission. Each of the gospel writers give differing narratives of post-resurrection activity. · Matthew’s account includes conspiracy, bribery and coverup on the part of secular

Luke departs from the norm in narrating the Resurrection story, inconspicuously using the third-person pronoun “they” ten times in the first nine verses of the account. “They” form the verb conjugation of the plural person. It is only at verse nine that Luke gives names to characters, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James. It was “they” who “ told these things to the apostles” verse 10c. The apostles were conspicuously absent from the tomb. They, the apostles,

The “watch” principle is not limited to the New Testament. Paul admonishes Timothy to “watch your life” (I Timothy 4:16). Christ urges his disciples to “watch and pray” (Mattew 26:31). The writer of Hebrews reminds the brethren that the elders are charged to “keep watch over your souls” (Hebrews 3:17). But in the prophetically relevant book of Habakkuk, there is a clear and distinct intentionality present: “ I will stand upon my watch …” (Habukkuk 2:1). The prophet, in chapt