Resources and Reflections for Justice Leaders

Justice Leader Fellow Angela Walker discusses the value of learning from others and their experiences within the Fellowship cohort, and how a deeper interreligious understanding is helping her in her work and engagement with people from different religious traditions.

Justice Leader Fellow Danette Zaghari-Mask reflects on the ways in which the "Fellowship, comprised of fellow activists, has been an opportunity to think more deeply about the precious resource and miracle of water from a prism of perspectives....Regardless of our significant theological differences and respective nuances, people of Abrahamic traditions share a common reality. We all connect water to faith and mercy; and along with any discussion of water, the imagery of love and closeness to the Creator is present in our collective consciousness."

Justice Leader Fellow Danette Zaghari-Mask reflects on the ways in which the "Fellowship, comprised of fellow activists, has been an opportunity to think more deeply about the precious resource and miracle of water from a prism of perspectives....Regardless of our significant theological differences and respective nuances, people of Abrahamic traditions share a common reality. We all connect water to faith and mercy; and along with any discussion of water, the imagery of love and closeness to the Creator is present in our collective consciousness."

"What water justice is and looks like is as fluid as water itself—literally and metaphorically. As we reflect on the first half of the 2020 ICJS Justice Leaders’ Fellowship, our world is currently drifting in a seemingly unforgiving flood of chaos. [resulting] from a lack of water justice, a lack of reverence for the very essence of water," writes ICJS Justice Leader Fellow O'Dellshae Wiles Robinson El Bey.

"What water justice is and looks like is as fluid as water itself—literally and metaphorically. As we reflect on the first half of the 2020 ICJS Justice Leaders’ Fellowship, our world is currently drifting in a seemingly unforgiving flood of chaos. [resulting] from a lack of water justice, a lack of reverence for the very essence of water," writes ICJS Justice Leader Fellow O'Dellshae Wiles Robinson El Bey.

"What water justice is and looks like is as fluid as water itself—literally and metaphorically. As we reflect on the first half of the 2020 ICJS Justice Leaders’ Fellowship, our world is currently drifting in a seemingly unforgiving flood of chaos. [resulting] from a lack of water justice, a lack of reverence for the very essence of water," writes ICJS Justice Leader Fellow O'Dellshae Wiles Robinson El Bey.

ICJS Justice Leader Fellow Faridah Abdul-Tawwab explores the ways in which the current cohort's interrogation of the idea of water justice has evolved, by dint of our current world crises, into a critical search for guidance and collective reflection to inform wise action in the moment.

Achieving water justice is both a hard truth and a more abstract metaphorical truth for our collective work in Baltimore. Within those hard truths, we engage in and understand the work differently. Each approach is valid, and each approach validates our own lived truths, while seeking justice for everyone.

Justice Leader Fellow Venessa Day Johnson reflects on key takeaways from the Fellowship.

Achieving water justice is both a hard truth and a more abstract metaphorical truth for our collective work in Baltimore. Within those hard truths, we engage in and understand the work differently. Each approach is valid, and each approach validates our own lived truths, while seeking justice for everyone.

Justice Leader Fellow Kylie Patterson reflects on the commitment to justice found across religious texts, the value of understanding context and learning in community, and the implications for this current moment.

In this unique time of relative isolation, yet still inundated with the all too-familiar refrains of the calls to stand up, be present, be heard, I am struggling....Perhaps this reflection, this confession, really, will lift my haze, break down my walls, and reawaken the refrain of my childhood—tzedek, tzedek, tirdof (justice, justice, shall you pursue).