What if you could combine the poetic social commentary of James Baldwin, the prophetic fire of Bob Marley, and the contemporary sounds of John Legend? Andre’s alternative R&B music would be at that intersection. His unique “Future Reggae” sound combines a little Atlanta and a little Montego Bay. As an award-winning singer-songwriter and music producer, Andre uses music to sing about Black life and social justice with elements of reggae, electronica, rock, and a dash of hip-hop. His combination of art, social commentary, and on-the-ground activism recalls the work of countless Black artists such as Nina Simone, Paul Robeson, and Marvin Gaye. In 2016, Andre’s passion for social justice and art came together when he decided to lug a 100-pound granite boulder around Los Angeles for a few months in protest of systemic racism in the United States. His ongoing performance was the start of a serious intellectual quest to understand how ordinary people can fight social oppression; the work has established him as a respected thought leader on anti-racism and social change. “I just wanted to help people understand what it is like to live in a Black body in an anti-Black world,” he explains. “One day, I lugged the boulder over to a piano. ‘It doesn’t have to be this way,’ I sang, again and again. Tears crawled down my face, as I realized this is it. This is the message.” That lyric is his rallying cry of a growing movement. Andre’s commitment to use art to inspire social progress has led him to study the works of great freedom fighters like Gandhi and Mandela and Martin Luther King. After studying leadership in nonviolent movements at the Harvard ...
Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a non-denominational Christian congregation in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Brian and his wife, Peri, founded the church in 1981. Brian is also the author of several books, including, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Water to Wine, A Farewell To Mars, Beauty Will Save the World, and Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness. Brian joined Drew and Jarrod to talk about his new book- When Everything's On Fire, Deconstruction, the death penalty, and more. Follow Brian on Twitter and Instagram @BrianZahnd Follow Drew Hart on Instagram and Twitter @druhart. Follow Jarrod McKenna on Instagram and Twitter @jarrodmckenna. Discover our global community on Twitter and Instagram @inversepodcast. Become a Patron of Inverse at https://www.patreon.com/InVerse Inverse Podcast is produced by Jen Kinney @iamjenkinney With thanks to David Andrew (@davidjandrew) for the ongoing use of his music in this podcast. ...
Kelly Denton-Borhaug has long been investigating how religion and violence collide in American war-culture. She teaches in the global religions department at Moravian University. She is the author of two books, U.S. War-Culture, Sacrifice and Salvation and, more recently, And Then Your Soul is Gone: Moral Injury and U.S. War-Culture. She recently wrote "Why Are So Many Military Brothers and Sisters Taking Their Own Lives?" for TomDispatch, com. See her faculty website for information about additional publications and podcasts about her work addressing religion and moral injury, theology, and ethics. Kelly Denton-Borhaug, Ph.D. (she/hers)Professor, Global Religions DepartmentCo-director, Peace and Justice Studies MinorExecutive Director, InFocus Centers of InvestigationMoravian Universityhttps://moravian.academia.edu/KellyDentonBorhaug Follow Drew Hart on Instagram and Twitter @druhart. Follow Jarrod McKenna on Instagram and Twitter @jarrodmckenna. Discover our global community on Twitter and Instagram @inversepodcast. Become a Patron of Inverse at https://www.patreon.com/InVerse Inverse Podcast is produced by Jen Kinney @iamjenkinney With thanks to David Andrew (@davidjandrew) for the ongoing use of his music in this podcast. ...
