Hearing her son ask those questions and seeing Black Lives Matter protests erupt nationwide after George Floyd’s death led theologian Kelly Brown Douglas to write “Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter.”

On Dec. 9, she was named winner of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for the book’s ideas.

, dean of Union Theological Seminary’s Episcopal Divinity School in New York City and a canon theologian at Washington Cathedral, is one of the first Black female Episcopal priests in the United States and the first Black person to head an Episcopal Church-affiliated educational institution.

In “,” she shows how a “white way of knowing” came to dominate America through an anti-Black narrative tracing back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle. She also cites examples of how the bias persists today, from the refusal to dismantle Confederate monuments to attempts to discredit The 1619 Project, an effort to reframe U.S. history starting from the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.

While recognizing the prolonged suffering of Black people raises deep questions about the credibility of Christianity, she argues that faith, not despair, is the best hope for assuring Black lives are valued in the future.

“Douglas takes us on a captivating, painful journey with personal and erudite reflections on America’s corrupted soul,” said Tyler Mayfield, religion award director. “Her insights are lucid and disturbing. Her remedies are bold and constructive. May we find the courage to walk into the future she envisions for us all.”

Douglas, who has doctor of philosophy and master of divinity degrees, has been a faculty member at Edward Waters College, Howard University and Goucher College. She has written five books, including “Sexuality and the Black Church” in which she addresses homophobia from a womanist perspective. Orbis Books published her Grawemeyer Award-winning book in 2021.

The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give the religion prize. Recipients of next year’s s were named Dec. 5-9 pending formal approval by trustees at both institutions.

The $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in music, world order, psychology and education. Winners will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

In 2021, UofL’s Interfaith Center received a makeover, thanks to the couple’s $250,000 gift that funded renovations including paint, lighting, furniture and a new roof.

The Interfaith Center on Belknap Campus provides a welcoming space for students who may be embarking on their first time away from home or their religious community or who seek spiritual enrichment in university life. Built in 1974, the Interfaith Center houses the offices of Hillel, the Jewish organization on campus, as well as the campus ministries for Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Methodist faiths.

“The university is exceptionally thankful to Brian and Mary Lavin for their generosity in supporting major renovations and improvements to the Interfaith Center,” said Michael Mardis, dean of students and vice president of student affairs. “The family has a long history and connection with the University of Louisville, and we are grateful for their ongoing involvement.”

The Lavins also have a strong relationship with a former UofL Catholic Campus Ministry chaplain, the Rev. Martin Martiny, who officiated the weddings of four of the Lavins’ children. When the Lavins found out the Interfaith Center needed updating, they felt it was an important way to help support students.

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UofL professor Michael Brandon McCormack and the UofL Black Diamond Choir are among the local, national and international faith, thought and community leaders who will participate in the event. Festival programs will celebrate the unique beauty, power and strength of the Black faith experiences while facing the profoundly brutal outcomes of genocide, slavery and “profit at any cost.”

McCormack, professor in the departments of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities and director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, will present “The Ghosts and Growing Edges of Black Faith: Intersectional and Interreligious Conversations.” His presentation, Nov. 19 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., will focus on emergent religious experiences and spirituality as tools for liberation and inspiration to address the oppression of Black people and the justification of systemic racism, patriarchy, sexism and homophobia.

Co-presenters include Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of “Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals” and cofounder of the Mobile Homecoming Trust; Sunni Patterson, an internationally acclaimed poet, performer and an initiated priestess and minister; and Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund and co-chair of the Ferguson Commission.

“I am particularly excited about this panel discussion,” said McCormack. “It will invite us to expand our thinking about the interplay between faith and race by thinking about those who are often marginalized within, or by, our faith traditions. This might be those whose social location, in terms of age, gender or sexuality, has rendered their voices silent within Black church traditions. It might also be those who find their faith and/or religious identification outside of that tradition altogether. Many of those marginalized voices have important wisdom to share about how their particular experiences of faith and race might offer spiritual resources for those involved in ongoing struggles for freedom.”

Later that evening, from 7 to 9 p.m., the University of Louisville Black Diamond Choir will be among the presenters for “Artistic Expressions of Racial Healing and Repair.” The choir, along with the Keen Dance Theatre, the Louisville Jazz Initiative, spoken word artist Hannah Drake and poet Sunni Patterson, will offer an evening of music, dance and spoken word that celebrates hope and activism in the face of oppression.

“It is essential that the Black Diamond Choir and UofL are present for Festival of Faiths, because our students are still living through the daily struggle of racial repair,” said Brandyn Bailey, assistant director of the UofL Cultural Center and advisor for the Black Male Initiative. “From the perspective of gospel music, [the choir] will offer the lineage of our genre since the era of slavery. Our message is a double-edge sword for participants and onlookers alike, that invites hope, redemption and victory.”

Now in its 25th year, the Festival of Faiths is an annual event that celebrates religious diversity, promotes unity and strengthens the role of faith in society. According to Sarah Reed, managing director of the Center for Interfaith Relations, the community is long overdue for “sacred change.”

“National headlines shed light on Louisville’s deep-rooted, institutionalized/systemic disparities of human experience predicated by the color of our skin,” said Reed. “Our city may not be unique in this, but as we became an epicenter at this intersection of turmoil, the painful truth was unavoidably clear — as was our responsibility to seek transformative change.”

Details and tickets for the 2021 Festival of Faiths are . Discounts for student tickets are available.��