The Prophetic Lens and the Racial Solidarity Project

June 24, 2024
Hosted by Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW

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Guest Information

Episode Description

Dr. Phil Allen, Jr. returns to Resiliency Within to discuss his journey since the release of his documentary and his first book, Open Wounds: A Story of Racial Tragedy, Trauma and Redemption. In this episode, he will explore the themes of his second book, The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency, from Martin Luther King to Darnella Frazier, which examines the role of the camera in the fight for racial justice. Allen highlights both the prophetic potential of the camera and the context of Blackness as a liminal existence amid a context dominated by whiteness. He states, “Martin Luther King used news cameras to expose anti-Black violence by white mobs in the 1950s and 60s. Darnella Frazier used her phone to record and post the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin in May 2020. These are just two of many people who have captured images of injustice for the world to see. The Prophetic Lens delves into the camera's role as an indispensable prophetic tool for the security of Black lives and the pursuit of racial justice.” Using Walter Brueggemann's Prophetic Imagination as a framework, Allen demonstrates how the camera can be a catalyst for cultural change. He chronicles the use of the camera in film, from J.D. Griffiths' Birth of a Nation to Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, revealing how this technology has effectively achieved the goals of its respective storytellers. Dr. Phil Allen, Jr. will also share the work of the nonprofit organization he founded, the Racial Solidarity Project. This organization aims to promote anti-racist, pro-community activism, and racial solidarity through its four pillars of sustainable activism: justice and equity advocacy, education, wellness, and intentional community-building. The Racial Solidarity Project believes that justice work requires solidarity, and solidarity invites healing. They emphasize the term “solidarity” because it reflects God’s work and is the central witness of God’s relationship with humanity.

Resiliency Within

Monday at 1 PM Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Channel

Elaine Miller-Karas will amplify the message of hope, healing and resiliency she has learned from our world community as she has traversed the globe after human made and natural disasters. Hope often springs forth in response to suffering and trauma. Our beliefs and our wellbeing are being challenged during these unprecedented times.

The program Resiliency Within is about cultivating individual and community resiliency. Resiliency is the capacity to lean into our strengths with compassion during the most challenging of times and to remember "what else is true?" about our lived experience.

Her guests are inspiring global leaders actively promoting healing and resiliency from a variety of backgrounds. The goal is to spread wellbeing and give individual and community examples to inspire how wellness skills, including ones based upon neuroscience and the biology of the human nervous system, can be integrated into one's life, family and community during challenging times.

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, has been called an "ambassador of hope" and a "resilience guru." She is an author, advocate, a social worker, a trauma therapist, a co-founder of an international organization, the Trauma Resource Institute and key developer of the Community and Trauma Resiliency Models.

She is the author of “Building Resiliency to Trauma, the Trauma and Community Resiliency Models(r)” (2015). She is committed to bringing accessible and affordable interventions based on neuroscience and the biology of the human nervous system to our world's community. Her models have been introduced to over 102 countries.

Elaine is a recognized international speaker and has presented at the Skoll World Forum at Oxford University and the United Nations. Her book was selected by the United Nations curated on-line library as one of the innovations that can help meet its Sustainable Development Goals.

Elaine feels passionately about the impact of climate change on our world community. She is a founding member of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition, an organization focused on the impact of climate change on mental health. She is dedicated to the world's children and she has worked with collaborators to develop interventions for children, parents and teachers to help reduce the impact of trauma. Consequently, she is a Senior Consultant to Emory University’s SEE Learning program, inspired and launched by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2019.

Episode Directory

July 2024

June 2024

  • 6/24/2024: The Prophetic Lens and the Racial Solidarity Project Listen Now
  • 6/17/2024: WorldBeing:The Power of Wellbeing Programs for Marginalized Youth Listen Now
  • 6/10/2024: Encore Reflections of Courage and Resiliency in Ukraine Listen Now
  • 6/3/2024: Systemic Trauma and Collective Healing Listen Now

May 2024

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