Photography’s Journey from Singular Object to Everything Everywhere All at Once with MJ Sharp and Elizabeth Howie
2024-08-15 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Artist in Residence MJ Sharp and Professor Elizabeth Howie return to talk photo! This time, rather than early women photographers, they will be exploring two related timelines in photography—that of the photograph as material object and how we understand the function of images in culture. How did we go from a treasured one-of-a-kind tintype to a personal firehose of images? Advances in technology made it possible, but advances in technology are never culturally neutral. What does the history tell us about how people responded to images in the early years of photography, and how are we to think about how images function in our lives now?
Leaders: A photographic artist and educator based in Durham, North Carolina, MJ was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Exeter, UK, for the 2021–2022 academic year pursuing the art/science collaboration Our Disappearing Darkness and Recreating True Night with nocturnal ecologist Dr. Kevin Gaston. Learn more about MJ and her work here. Dr. Elizabeth Howie has taught Art History at Coastal Carolina University since 2008. Learn more about Elizabeth here.
Cost: Free. Registration required.
Register below.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Pictured above:
Soldier and Companion (against an iPhoto library)
Tintype with brass mat and leather case
American, between 1861 and 1865
Detroit Institute of Arts collection

Ministry of Black Women's Self Care, August, 2024 - with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2024-08-21 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
August: Bag Lady: The Art of Letting Go
September: The Joy (and the Oh Boy) of Mothering While Black
October: Legacy: Gifting Our Wealth to Generations to Come
November: Honoring the Uncommon: Giving Thanks for the Unconventional
December: Perspective: Reflections on the Journey
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40
per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for August below.
Register for September: HERE. October: HERE. November: HERE. December: HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Jereann King Johnson Documentary Film Project Fundraiser
2024-08-25 15:00 - 17:00
RCWMS and Black Feminist Film School are producing a documentary about Warren County educator, community organizer, and quilter Jereann King Johnson. Join us for an exclusive sneak peek of our forthcoming documentary, meet Director Courtney Reid- Eaton and Film Editor Tamar Rachkovsky, and learn how your generous donation will help support and fund our groundbreaking project.
Read more about Jereann and the documentary project here.
Location: The Fruit, 305 S. Dillard Street, Durham, NC
Cost: $25, $50, $100, or $250. Pay what you can to support the film.
Photo by T. Hunter

The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type - A Reading with Sandra Smith (via Zoom)
2024-08-29 19:00 - 20:00
With clarity in teaching and practicality in practices, Certified Enneagram Teacher Sandra Smith will join us to speak to and read from her book (released September 1) The Enneagram Map to Your Deeper Self: Living Beyond Your Type, which covers some of the wisdom Sandra has gleaned from more than two decades of teaching. She’ll offer some of the book’s blessings, prayers and practices. Additionally, she’ll address some of the teaching highlights from the Ego Idea of the types to our Enlightened Spiritual Perspective as she weaves personality and spirituality in this discussion. The book contains stories from guest writers or “Companion Voices,” who speak to their lived experience of their Enneagram type. These stories bring lots of heart and aliveness to the understanding of the Enneagram Map. Two of these guest writers will join Sandra to share their experience of writing a part of their own life story.

Sandra Smith

Lee Ensign Claudia Jiménez
With decades of teaching experience, author, consultant, and teacher Sandra Smith weaves her background in business and non-profits with her theological education to offer a practical and compassionate exploration of the Enneagram’s nine types. An accredited International Enneagram Association Professional (IEA)and certified in the Narrative Enneagram Tradition, Sandra co-created and co-hosts the podcast, Heart of the Enneagram, that explores dimensions of the nine unique Enneagram perspectives through interviewing guests of all nine types and co-authored its companion book, Heart of the Enneagram: A Companion for Deepening Personal and Spiritual Growth.
Sandra has presented at numerous International Enneagram Association Conferences in the USA as well as Canada, and is a speaker for SDI (Spiritual Directors International) conferences, speaking to the role of the Enneagram in Spiritual Companioning. Her love for the earth, and commitment to equity and inclusion inform her teaching and her living.
Learn more about her work by visiting her website. Or follow her on Instagram and on Facebook.
Sandra will be joined by Lee Ensign and Claudia Jiménez. Ensign is a clinical psychologist in independent practice, with particular interest in the interweave of somatic, psychological, and spiritual experience. She is a certified Enneagram teacher in the narrative tradition and lives in Knoxville, TN. Claudia Jiménez, MDiv is a proud mother of two young adult daugthers who enjoys travel, Latin dancing and spending quality time with family and friends. She is a Unitarian Universalist minister with a focus on justice engagement.
COST: Free. Registration is required.
Register below.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Bloom: An Exploration of the Enneagram with Chelsea Yarborough
2024-09-14 10:00 - 12:00
“Chelsea’s workshops bring the Enneagram to life! She helped me understand myself in new and important ways!”
– past workshop participant
The sign of any living thing is evolution. The journey from the seed to the roots to the plant breaking through soil is a beautiful one and not easy. In this workshop, we will talk about The Enneagram and the environments and practices that help each number move through the processes of growth to their season of Blooming. This workshop is great for anyone who has never touched the Enneagram to those who use it in their daily practice. We will move through each of the numbers and engage in activities that allow us to ask, “What might be my next bloom?”
Leader: Rev. Dr. Chelsea Brooke Yarborough, PhD, is the Associate Director of Leadership Programming at the Association of Theological Schools. Yarborough is a preacher, an ordained minister in the Baptist tradition, a poet, and an enneagram coach. Learn more about Chelsea here.
Cost: $25, $40, or $60. Choose the price that fits your budget. Sliding scale also available. Contact info@rcwms.org.
Location: Trinity Avenue Presbyterian, 927 W. Trinity Ave, Durham, NC.
Register below.

Ministry of Black Women's Self Care, September, 2024 - with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2024-09-18 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
September: The Joy (and the Oh Boy) of Mothering While Black
October: Legacy: Gifting Our Wealth to Generations to Come
November: Honoring the Uncommon: Giving Thanks for the Unconventional
December: Perspective: Reflections on the Journey
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40
per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for September below.
Register for October: HERE. November: HERE. December: HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Anti-Racism As Daily Practice: A Reading with Jen Harvey, in conversation with Melanie Morrison (via Zoom)
2024-09-19 19:00 - 20:00
“An essential book of practical wisdom…. If you’re white and have been asking, ‘What can I do now?’ this lively and timely book is for you.”
―Robert Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
Antiracism as Daily Practice illustrates the many ways white Americans can choose behaviors in our everyday lives to grow racial justice. Full of real life stories, this book shows how vital it is for white people to engage in and with our families, through our social networks, in our neighborhoods, and at our jobs to make antiracism a daily living commitment. We have real power in our relationships with other white people–and not enough of us have used it. Dr. Harvey explains why we white people struggle with knowing what to do about racism, and explores the significance of emotions like grief and anger (as well as the harmful role of shame) in reckoning with the transformation and change needed in our communities to become the partners in justice that Black communities and other communities of color need and deserve.

Author: The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Harvey is a long-time educator and activist who passions continually revolve around white antiracism, who currently serves as VP for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean at Garrett Theological Seminary. Dr. Harvey’s books include the New York Times Bestseller Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in Racially Unjust America and Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation, she’s written for the New York Time and CNN and appeared on nationally syndicated televisions and radio, including CNN’s Town Hall on Racism with Sesame Street and NPR’s “All Things Considered” with Michel Martin.
Purchase the book: HERE.
Cost: Free. Registration is required.
Register below.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Remaking a Memory with Shawna Ayoub (via Zoom)
2024-09-22 14:00 - 16:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States
Traumatic memories are formed differently than normal memories, and can be more intense and longer lasting. In addition, we can inform our own traumatic memories by rehearsing them. This looks like retelling the event to others, to ourselves, or writing it down. When we do this, we are at risk of introducing inaccuracies and potentially doing ourselves greater harm. However, when we write our traumatic memories, we are also presented with a powerful opportunity: to reframe them.

Reframing our difficult memories allows us to remake them in a way that serves us. In this two-hour Zoom session, we will learn how memories can be intentionally offered through multiple reframing techniques including altered point of view and writing the story as it should have happened. After our workshop, writers will have the chance to receive private written feedback from the instructor.

Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 12 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $75, $100. Scholarships available. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Suffering: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation
2024-09-29 14:00 - 16:00
Join us at the Fruit in Durham for a wide-ranging conversation about depictions of suffering in art and theology. RCWMS Artist-in-Residence MJ Sharp will be exhibiting and discussing her Terror Triptych with Art Historian Elizabeth Howie as part of the 2024 Click! Photography Festival. They will be joined by Theologian-in-Residence Racquel Gill, who will be discussing foundational feminist theology texts such as Phyllis Trible’s Texts of Terror with RCWMS Founder and Director Jeanette Stokes.
The exhibit will be open beginning at 2:00 on Sunday, with the presentations beginning at 2:30. Audience questions and participation encouraged.
Leaders: A photographic artist and educator based in Durham, North Carolina, MJ was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Exeter, UK, for the 2021–2022 academic year pursuing the art/science collaboration Our Disappearing Darkness and Recreating True Night with nocturnal ecologist Dr. Kevin Gaston. Learn more about MJ and her work here. Dr. Elizabeth Howie has taught Art History at Coastal Carolina University since 2008. Learn more about Elizabeth here. Racquel Gill obtained her Masters of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School in May of 2015, and currently serves as the Minister for Intercultural Engagement at Duke University Chapel in Durham. Racquel is the Theologian in Residence for RCWMS. Learn more about Racquel here. Jeanette is the founder and executive director of RCWMS. Learn more about Jeanette here.
Location: The Fruit, 305 S. Dillard St., Durham, NC
Cost: Free. Registration required.
Register below.

Pictured above:

Crickets panel from The Terror Triptych

MJ Sharp

Ministry of Black Women's Self Care, October, 2024 - with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2024-10-16 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
October: Legacy: Gifting Our Wealth to Generations to Come
November: Honoring the Uncommon: Giving Thanks for the Unconventional
December: Perspective: Reflections on the Journey
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40
per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for October below.
Register for November: HERE. December: HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

gOD Talk: A Black Millennials and Faith Conversation
2024-10-18 18:00 - 21:00 | Hayti Heritage Center, Old Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC, 27701, United States
Join us to engage in a compelling conversation about millennials, faith, and spirituality!

gOD-Talk is a groundbreaking project led by the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life in association with Pew Research Center. Featuring leading millennial voices, gOD-Talk amplifies their individual and shared experiences in a curated conversation streamed to audiences online across the United States and around the world.

The rise of the “spiritual but not religious” designation has led to a decline of millennial participation in mainline religious traditions with many questioning the relevance, mission, and overall purpose of organized religion in the 21st century.
The film screening will be followed by a talkback led by Rev. Teddy Reeves, Curator of Religion at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, featuring Rev. Racquel C.N. Gill (Duke Chapel), Justice Hill (Duke Divinity School), Taylor Stewart (NCCU), Latifat Odetunde (UNC), and Rev. Gloria Winston (NCCU).

Cost: Free. Registration required.
Register: HERE

Writing the Body with Shawna Ayoub (via Zoom)
2024-11-17 14:00 - 16:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States
It’s a well-researched fact that we store our emotional experiences in our physical bodies. On anniversaries of loss, for example, it is common to feel body pain, heaviness, or fatigue. In this workshop, we will practice feeling into our body stories safely in order to capture them in words. As a group, we will learn about how the body stores memory, and why, and take home practices for listening to the stories our bodies want to tell us. While this course is appropriate for writers at every level and of every genre.

Writers will take home a packet of writing examples as well as prompts, and can contact Shawna for written feedback within two weeks of this workshop.

Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 12 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $75, $100. Scholarships available. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Ministry of Black Women's Self Care, November, 2024 - with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2024-11-20 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
November: Honoring the Uncommon: Giving Thanks for the Unconventional
December: Perspective: Reflections on the Journey
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40
per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for November below.
Register for December: HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Remembering Those We Miss with Shawna Ayoub (in-person)
2024-12-14 13:00 - 16:00 | Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church, 927 W Trinity Ave, Durham, NC, West Trinity Avenue, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Writing letters can be a heartfelt way to express our love and celebrate the relationships we’ve shared. Letters can help us preserve important memories and stories, confront unfinished business, and expose ourselves to things we may be avoiding. This is especially true when we are writing to those who are gone from our lives, whether they have passed on or passed on us.

In this workshop, we will come together to examine our grief through the epistolary form. In a safe and supportive space, we will write letters to those we have lost as an act of self-care. Writers will be welcome to share work with the instructor for private feedback after the course.

Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 12 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $1oo, $125. Scholarships available. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Holiday Sale December 15, 2024!
2024-12-15 13:00 - 17:00 | 1202 Watts Street, Durham, NC, Watts Street 1202, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Handmade cards, books, jewelry, animals, paintings, etc. by:
Kimberley Pierce Cartwright, B. J. Fusaro, Galia Goodman, Bryant Holsenbeck, Jereann King Johnson, Jeanette Stokes, & The TravelPenguin

Come by to visit, experience local artwork, and purchase great gifts. RCWMS books will be on deep discount. They make great holiday gifts! Bring your neighbors, friends, and families. A portion of the proceeds will benefit RCWMS. Masks are requested.
For more information, please email Jeanette Stokes at jeanette@rcwms.org.

Location: 1202 Watts Street, Durham, NC (Corner of Watts Street and Demerius Street)

Ministry of Black Women's Self Care, December, 2024 - with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2024-12-18 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.

December: Perspective: Reflections on the Journey

Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40
per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for December below.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care, January, 2025 – with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2025-01-15 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
January 2025– 2025 (Twenty Twenty Thrive): The First Day of the Rest of My Life
February 2025– We Got Us: Black Women Saving Ourselves
March 2025– HerStory: Writing My Next Chapter
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40 per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for January HERE. February HERE. March HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Writing into the Light with Carol Henderson
2025-01-27 11:00 - 12:15 | Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church, 927 W Trinity Ave, Durham, NC, West Trinity Avenue, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
This event has been canceled. For additional information, please contact info@rcwms.org.

This Time Next Year: Vision, Values and Goals with Solita Denard (via Zoom)
2025-01-29 18:30 - 20:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States
What do you need to take the next step to improve your personal health? Join us for an integrated approach to wellness! This 4-part series is designed for individuals ready to learn in a supportive community and commit to moving toward their personal vision of health and wellbeing. Guided by Solita Denard, participants will develop a personalized wellness plan through curated group discussions.
If you desire to make a positive change in one or more areas of personal health in 2025, this series is for you. The program includes four group sessions and up to four private, one-on-one coaching sessions tailored to each participant.
January 29: This Time Next Year: Vision, Values and Goals.
What do we want? Why do we want it?
April 29: Making Progress: Challenges, Insights and New Habits.
Reflecting on the important information being offered by our specific practices toward
better health. What are we learning?
July 29: What Needs Attention Now? The Integrated Approach to Health.
Checking in with ourselves and the importance of leverage.
October 29: Sustaining Our Behavior Changes: A Plan and Strategies for Support.
Standing on our strengths for forward movement.
Leader: Solita Denard, Health Integration 629, LLC partners with clients as they create a vision and then take action to improve personal health through the Behavior Change process. Integrative Health Coaching supports clients in assessing 9 different areas of Health and Wellbeing. Solita will assist participants in creating a personal plan toward positive health changes with increased self-awareness. Each day Solita is reminded that supporting clients in the process of Behavior Change is sacred work.

Cost: $229 for full series, including up to four private one-on-one coaching series per participant. Space is limited. For additional information, please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Nightscapes: A Conversation on Nocturnal Images with MJ Sharp (via Zoom)
2025-02-06 18:00 - 20:00
Join us on Thursday February 6th, from 6-8pm. RCWMS Artist in Residence MJ Sharp will give an online artist talk reflecting on her twenty years of photographing at night.
The talk is in conjunction with her upcoming Nightscapes show on view at Craven Allen Gallery in Durham from February 8th — March 1st, with an opening reception on Saturday night, February 8th from 5-7pm. MJ is delighted to welcome several colleagues as commentators during the online talk. Each leader for the discussion were invaluable advisors and collaborators as the original nocturnal images of prehistoric sites in the UK (during her Fulbright Scholar year) became the Disappearing Darkness projections that were first workshopped at the Fruit in Durham during the 2023 Click!Photography Festival. The images were later installed at the College of Wooster Art Museum in Ohio during the fall semester of 2024.
The Nightscapes show is presenting them in printed form for the first time, along with other new work from the past several years.
Leaders: Dr. Elizabeth Howie (Professor of Art History, Coastal Carolina University), Dr. Ellen C. Raimond (Associate Curator of Academic Initiatives at the Nasher Museum), Dr. Marianne Wardle (Director and Curator of the College of Wooster Art Museum), and Dr. Elizabeth Johnson (Executive Director, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, University of Pennsylvania).

Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care, February 2025 – with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2025-02-19 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
February 2025– We Got Us: Black Women Saving Ourselves
March 2025– HerStory: Writing My Next Chapter
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40 per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for February: HERE. March: HERE.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care, March 2025 – with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2025-03-19 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
March 2025– HerStory: Writing My Next Chapter
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40 per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

BLUESTEM WALKING TOUR, Bluestem Conservation Cemetery
2025-03-21 12:30 - 14:00 | 1900 Hurdle Mills Road Cedar Grove, NC 27231
Come learn about Bluestem, a beautiful piece of land north of Hillsborough, NC, now being developed as a nature preserve and a conservation burial ground.

Why conservation burial, and why Bluestem in particular? Cemeteries are places for people to be permanently memorialized and places at which family and loved ones may gather for reflection. Conservation burial grounds serve as places where individual and community commitment to conservation and perpetuity come together. Bluestem will be a conservation cemetery designed as a nature preserve and place of reverence, with a trail network, quiet areas for reflection, open space for contemplation, and designated areas within its restored landscape for natural burial.
Join us at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery a place of reverence for all to connect with the sacred in nature. Drop in to get to know this place, find more information about conservation burial and Bluestem’s natural sanctuaries, and let us know more about how Bluestem can serve you and your spiritual community! Local clergy, faith leaders, spiritual guides, laypeople, and just curious folks welcome!
Learn more about Bluestem: HERE
Cost:$10.00. Proceeds will support Bluestem.
Spaces are limited. Register below.

Surviving Your Story: Expressing Writing for Release and Recovery
2025-03-23 14:00 - 16:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States
Difficult experiences can become lodged in our bodies in ways that impact us daily, and writing is a way to name, release and recover from those experiences. Expressive writing allows us to make sense and meaning; to re-craft the struggle and better reflect our truth. In other words, it supports you in surviving your story.
This course is structured in two parts. In the first, we come together as a group for a two-hour Zoom session to discuss the what and how of safe expressive writing practices, followed by exercises and a take-home writing assignment. For the second part, you have the option of submitting your writing to the instructor for private, written feedback. Please note that these workshops are intentionally carved out for those who identify as women, femme, and/or nonbinary to experience camaraderie as we navigate difficult, challenging, and deeply personal topics.
Writers will also take home a packet of writing examples and prompts to help them continue their practice.
Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 15 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $75, $100. Scholarships available. OR 5 workshops for $325, or 3 workshops of their choice for $200. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.
*Community members who would like to donate scholarships may do so at rcwms.org/donate.

Ancestral Wisdom: For the Struggle for Liberation-Lecture Series at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church
2025-04-04 19:00 - 2025-04-05 13:30 | Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, 1801 Hillsborough St, Raleigh, NC, 27605, United States
This year’s lecture series, Ancestral Wisdom: For the Struggle for Liberation, features Dr. Sarah Azaransky, Associate Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Over the two days, she will lecture on the themes of her most recent book, This Worldwide Struggle. Read more about Dr. Azaransky HERE.
Schedule of Events
Day 1: Friday, April 4 — 7-9 pm in Finlator Hall (Book Talk and Reception)
Dr. Sarah Azaransky will discuss her latest book, This Worldwide Struggle: Religion and the International Roots of the Civil Rights Movement. It identifies a network of Black Christian intellectuals and activists who looked abroad (including in other religious traditions) for ideas and practices that could transform American democracy. From the 1930s to the 1950s, they drew lessons from independence movements around the world for an American racial justice campaign. The book reveals fertile intersections of worldwide resistance movements, American racial politics, and interreligious exchanges that crossed literal borders and disciplinary boundaries.
A complimentary reception will follow.
Day 2: Saturday. April 5 — 10 am-1:30 pm in Finlator Hall
Dr. Azaransky will offer some reflections. An interfaith panel will follow featuring Latifat Odetunde, Hima Thaker, Bianca Richardson, and Caleb Panton. The discussion will center on how our movements for justice today might draw from the spiritual wisdom of the ancestors in Dr. Azaransky’s work — including Bayard Rustin, Pauli Murray, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King Jr.
This event is co-sponsored by RCWMS & Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice.
Cost: $5 (donation), $10 (includes lunch), $15 (sponsor a lunch).
Register for Saturday : HERE
Learn more: HERE
Contact: news@pullen.org

Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care, April 2025 – with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2025-04-16 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
April 2025: Promises, Promises: Committed to Our Progress
May 2025: I Feel it in My Bones: We Know What We Know
June 2025: Dealing with Shrinkage: Imposter Syndrome, Hair Journeys and Taking Up Space in this Skin
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40 per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for April: HERE. May: HERE. June: HERE
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Stagville Historic Site Tour: Understanding the Lives and Work of Enslaved People
2025-04-25 13:00 - 15:00 | 5828 Old Oxford Highway Durham, N.C. 27712
Join us for a tour of Historic Stagville, a state historic site in northern Durham County that includes remnants of one of the largest plantations in North Carolina. The Bennehan-Cameron family owned approximately 30,000 acres of land and enslaved about 900 people on this property. Stagville protects a fraction of the land from that plantation, including original housing for enslaved people (1851), a massive barn (1860), and a Bennehan family house (1787-1799). Stagville is dedicated to teaching about the lives and work of enslaved people on the plantation.
Don’t miss this opportunity to join Stagville staff, RCWMS folk, and other community members in learning more about Historic Stagville. The tour will begin at 1:00. Please allow sufficient time for the drive there.
Cost: $10/person. Proceeds to support Historic Stagville. Additional donations to Stagville are welcome!
Register below.

Making Progress: Challenges, Insights and New Habits with Solita Denard (via Zoom)
2025-04-29 18:30 - 20:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States

Ministry of Black Women’s Self Care, May 2025 – with Kim Gaubault (via Zoom)
2025-05-21 19:00 - 20:30
Kim Gaubault recognizes that self-care is often the component that remains a form of intervention (after the break or the medical emergency) rather than a preventative measure. When we allow our bodies, minds and/or spirits to break down in the course of doing this work, we are not only putting ourselves at risk but we are putting at risk the integrity of the work for which we are laboring. This work is a work of self-love, communal love, Womanist Ethicism, it is multi-generational, multicultural and is not finite, but is instead as infinite as the beauty in the divinity that is Blackness. Come and share in this life’s work! This program is specifically designed to offer practical tools for everyday self-care to Black women-identified individuals doing all forms of ministry, in church and community.
May 2025: I Feel it in My Bones: We Know What We Know
June 2025: Dealing with Shrinkage: Imposter Syndrome, Hair Journeys and Taking Up Space in this Skin
Leader: Kimberly Gaubault (McCrae) is an intentional lover of humanity and actively lives the self-care life about which she teaches and advocates. Her personal philosophy of interpersonal interaction is, “If I’ve not positively influenced someone everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve not walked in my purpose.”
Cost: $10, $25, or $40 per session. Choose the price that fits your budget.
Register for May: HERE. June: HERE
Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.

Remaking a Memory with Shawna Ayoub
2025-05-25 14:00 - 16:00 | via Zoom, Durham, NC, United States
Traumatic memories are formed differently than normal memories, and can be more intense and longer lasting. In addition, we can inform our own traumatic memories by rehearsing them. This looks like retelling the event to others, to ourselves, or writing it down. When we do this, we are at risk of introducing inaccuracies and potentially doing ourselves greater harm. However, when we write our traumatic memories, we are also presented with a powerful opportunity: to reframe them.
Reframing our difficult memories allows us to remake them in a way that serves us. In this two-hour Zoom session, we will learn how memories can be intentionally offered through multiple reframing techniques including altered point of view and writing the story as it otherwise might have happened.
Writers will take home a packet of writing examples as well as prompts, and can contact Shawna for written feedback within two weeks of this workshop.
Leader: Shawna Ayoub is a brown, queer, Durham-based writer and instructor whose work prioritizes the engagement of difficult topics. After recognizing the personal benefits of writing for release and recovery, she has made her practice public for the last 15 years, offering courses independently as well as through the Center for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in Verywell Mind, Survivor Lit, Exit 7, [wherever], The Archipelago, and The Manifest-Station.
Cost: $75, $100. Scholarships available. OR 5 workshops for $325, or 3 workshops of their choice for $200. Please contact info@rcwms.org.
Register below. Registrants will receive a Zoom link in the automated ticket confirmation.
*Community members who would like to donate scholarships may do so at rcwms.org/donate.
