A Tale of 2 Artists and 3 Great Souls

Why Do Some Statues Need to Come Down?

A TALE OF 2 GREAT SOULS—Lincoln scholar Duncan Newcomer frames our Cover Story this week with this column about two great souls who are frequently in the news this month: Abraham Lincoln and the poet and author James Baldwin.

Thousands of books have been written about Lincoln, including Duncan’s own 30 Days with Abraham Lincoln. Now, Baldwin’s wisdom is being lifted up in our national conversation in new ways almost every week. His authority has been growing especially since Ta-Nehisi Coates invoked him in the 2015 National-Book-Award-winning Between the World and Me, Raoul Peck celebrated him in the 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro and then a movie version of Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk became an Oscar-winning film in 2018. As recently as July 2, The New York Times asked: “Can James Baldwin Make Sense of Today?”

Please read Duncan’s answer to that question posed by the Times, written in light of the national wave of concern about racist memorials—and the legacy of Lincoln.

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Then, how should we portray Lincoln?

Artists’ perspectives are as divided as today’s public debates

A TALE OF 2 ARTISTS—Today, a growing number of Americans agree that the so-called Emancipation Memorial in Washington D.C.—and its duplicate in Boston—need to come down. City officials in Boston already have removed their copy of the statue. What most Americans don’t know is that this 1876 statue by a White artist was flawed from the day of its dedication—and that Black artists began revising our public images of Lincoln more than half a century ago. One such ground-breaking Black artist was William Edouard Scott, whose very different portrait of Lincoln—with Frederick Douglass—was unveiled in D.C. in 1943.

Please, read our story about these two dramatically different artists’ perspectives and share it with friends this week.

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A Reminder to All of Us …

From Civil Rights Leader John Lewis: ‘People Can Change’

OUR THIRD GREAT SOUL THIS WEEK is civil rights pioneer and U.S. Representative John Lewis. Duncan Newcomer brings our Cover Story columns full circle with a reminder of Lewis’s powerful message: “People can change.” This isn’t merely a casually hopeful phrase. These words were part of a dramatic reconciliation Lewis had in recent years with a man who tried to kill him in the 1960s, during a nonviolent civil rights protest.

Once again, please read this column that highlights Lewis’s courage and wisdom. Then, if you are inspired by this column, please share it with friends.

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More from Our Writers …

Resources For Non-Black Parents Of Black Children 

DR. ANNI REINKING is an important part of the national conversation about race and racism, this year, because of her scholarly research, as well as her own life experiences, summed up in her book Not Just Black and White. On June 6, Anni wrote our two-part ReadTheSpirit Cover Story: One story was headlined, What now? Dr. Anni Reinking Reminds Us It’s ‘Not Just Black and White,’ and then the second story was, Dr. Anni Reinking on ‘What Can I Do Now?’

After that, Anni connected with the journalism network HARO and played a key role in another national story headlined, 9 Resources for Non-Black Parents of Black Children, Recommended by Experts and Families. This appears in Romper online magazine, part of the giant Bustle Digital Group, which has millions of readers especially focusing on young women.

Please read our story about how Anni connected with Romper and what the magazine reported in this week’s Front Edge Publishing column.

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Holidays & Festivals

Dramatically Downsized Hajj Is an Opportunity to Meet Our Muslim Neighbors

The thousands of Muslim men and women who normally would be packing up for their once-in-a-lifetime journey to Mecca this month aren’t going anywhere, this year. Due to the pandemic, Saudi Arabia is turning this event that normally involves millions into a symbolic ritual for about 1,000 people. This is an opportunity for all of us to reach out to Muslim neighbors and co-workers and ask about family customs—as our holiday story by Stephanie Fenton suggests.

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Care to see all of our Holidays & Festivals columns? It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the address InterfaithHolidays.com

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FAITH & FILM 

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ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with discussion guides to films. This resource is used coast-to-coast by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.

Among Ed’s free reviews and columns are these films available for streaming now. 

1. MALCOLM X—This week, Ed writes: “This review was written for the December 1992 issue of Visual Parables. I am bringing it up from the archives because of a new project highlighting ten films I believe every American white person needs to see in order to understand the currently debated topics of systemic racism and white privilege. With a few minor exceptions, the text appears as originally printed, but the two Scripture passages and a set of questions for discussing the film are additions.”
2. BOYS STATE—Ed writes, “The new documentary by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss is an interesting look at our democratic process in miniature, as seen at a Boys State meeting, one of 49 held each year in every state but Hawaii since the mid Thirties, sponsored by the American Legion.” (4.5 out of 5 stars)
3. IRRESISTIBLE—Ed writes, “This is the delightful story of a political operative who might be too smart for himself. Director/writer Jon Stewart’s political satire does not hedge by conjuring up fictitious names of political parties, though the characters themselves are made-up. Steve Carell’s Gary Zimmer is a political consultant of the Democratic Party, and Rose Byrne’s Faith Brewster works for the Republican National Committee.” (4.5 out of 5 stars)
4. SWEETHEART—Ed writes, “Director J.D. Dillard also co-wrote the screenplay of this tense thriller set on a desert island. The sweetheart of the title is Jenn (Kiersey Clemons), who finds herself swept up on the sandy beach of a tropical island.” (4 stars)
5. HEARTS BEAT LOUD—Because of Kiersey Clemons’s new film Sweetheart, Ed reaches back to 2017 to recommend this earlier film in which she starred.
6. DA 5 BLOODS—Ed urges viewers to see this 5-star direct-to-streaming film from Spike Lee about five Vietnam veterans.
7. SEE YOU YESTERDAY—Ed writes, “This science fiction thriller by first-time director Stefon Bristol and his co-writer Fredrica Bailey boasts Spike Lee as one of its producers. With its ripped-from-the-headlines relevancy in regard to police brutality you might think it was made last week, but it actually was released a little over a year ago when another shooting of a black man by the police was in the headlines. Indeed, its genesis goes back even further when Bristol had made a short film and Spike Lee  helped him to expand it into its present feature length. With many #Black Lives Matter news clips interspersed throughout, the film seems like a mixture of Back to the Future, The Hate You Give and When They See Us.” (5 out of 5 stars)
8. CURTIZ—This film about Michael Curtiz, the director of Casablanca, is full of factual errors. “Nevertheless,” Ed McNulty writes, “first-time director Tamas Yvan Topolanszky’ film, streaming on Netflix, is an interesting one thanks to a combination of excellent acting and crisp black & white photography.”
9. RETURN TO ME—Ed writes, “Director/co-writer Bonnie Hunt’s 20-year-old romantic film could easily have gone astray were it not for its solid cast and attention to details of character. The main characters—two lovers Bob Rueland and Grace Biggs, played by David Duchovny and Minnie Driver—are so appealing that we can overlook some of the film’s sentimental excess.” (4 out of 5 stars)
10. PROLONGED EXPOSURE—“This film might seem slow moving by anyone who has been misled by the false posters that imply this is an action thriller. Mr. Thoms’ insightful script is more of a character study.” (4 stars)

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