Rev. Dr. Yvette R. Blair-Lavallais is a public theologian, sixth-generation pastor, and award-winning writer whose work centers faith, justice, and storytelling. A fellow of Princeton's Black Theology and Leadership Institute and Vanderbilt's Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative, she is the author of Being Ruth and Scrimpin' and Scrapin'. Her work has been published in Blavity and Visible Magazine, among others. An ordained elder in the Methodist tradition, she has served in pastoral ministry for more than fifteen years and currently serves on the pastoral team at Greater Garth Chapel AME in Dallas.
Description
"As the dean of a Historically Black divinity school, I read Deep Calls to Deep with deep gratitude and sober recognition. Yvette Blair-Lavallais asks us to imagine African American churches and communities--and American society more generally--without Historically Black Theological Institutions and, in doing so, names what is too often taken for granted. Centering a vanguard of innovative Black women academics and clergy leaders, she offers an insightful narrative of the remarkable founding and promising futures of the Big Six HBTIs, attending carefully to their vulnerabilities to market pressures, their strategies of resilience, and their resistance to the logics of empire and historical erasure. Read and be inspired by this timely and necessary work." --Kenyatta R. Gilbert, PhD, dean, School of Divinity, Howard University "Yvette R. Blair-Lavallais takes us on an encyclopedic, creative interdisciplinary journey about the souls of Black folk, Black faith, and the Black religious institutions dedicated to exquisite pedagogical and social-justice education. . . . Deep Calls to Deep is a must-read for all persons curious about Black religious life, for all who view themselves as leaders of this tradition, and for social-justice activists everywhere." --Rev. Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, PhD, retired professor of religion at Shaw Divinity School and author of Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals "Blair-Lavallais's book surprises, inspires, and motivates the reader to learn even more about these necessary institutions and how they shaped theologians, scholars, and preachers of the present day. She moves these schools from mere buildings to institutions with deep and rich cultural and historical origins that fed students with the spiritual food they did not know they needed. It is almost as though she gets the institutions to speak aloud themselves!" --Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, director, Office of Clergy and Leadership Development, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, and author of Rest for the Justice-Seeking Soul "Deep Calls to Deep is a sacred and necessary witness to the enduring power of Historically Black Theological Institutions. Dr. Yvette Blair-Lavallais reminds us that Black seminaries are not merely academic spaces but wells of wisdom where faith, struggle, scholarship, and prophetic imagination meet. . . . This book is both a historical record and a spiritual call to protect, invest in, and celebrate the institutions that continue shaping the future of the Black church." --Dr. Michael L. Bowie Jr., National Executive Director, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century "Blair-Lavallais not only reminds us of past strength and resilience, but offers the brilliance of Black intellectual thought empowered by the Holy Spirit as a current gift of sweet love to firm our feeble knees and to see ourselves critically forward, even in such a time as this. This well-researched labor of love is a must for your library." --Rev. Sequola McNeill Ingram, pastor of St. Mary AME Church, Apex, North Carolina; Payne Theological Seminary alumna; and author of The Green Funeral "Blair-Lavallais tells the story of how our beloved Historically Black Theological Institutions (HBTIs) were established during one of the most divided times in this country's history. Through meticulous research, she offers not just the origin stories of resilience, fortitude, and determination, but a genealogy of each sacred seminary. . . . Required reading for anyone who wants to learn about this part of American history." --Rev. Christopher K. Wesley, senior pastor, Antioch Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and alumnus of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at VUU