Drick Boyd's Blog
KENYA JOURNAL – Driving in Nairobi
NOTE: From July 31 to August 15, I traveled with seven other folks to Kenya as part of a project sponsored by Eastern University Urban Studies Program and BuildaBridge International in cooperation with the Center for Transforming Mission based in Nairobi,...
Kenya Journal: A White Guy Tries to Buy a Comb
It began to dawn on me: I am in Kenya where the vast majority of people are black with black folks’ hair. Why would they need to sell a white guy’s comb?
KENYA JOURNAL: TEACHING BEGINS – BOTH WAYS …
The liberation theologians say we meet Christ in the lives of the poor and oppressed. I have found that to be true in my interaction with these teachers.
Kenya Journal – Arriving in Kenya: First Impressions
Certainly Huruma is not all of Kenya, for there are many Kenyas. But this is the Kenya I came to know…
Kenya Journal – Day 0
Tomorrow (July 31) I will be joining six other folks from Eastern University and Builda Bridge International on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya. While there, we will working with Moses and Celmali Okonji, who have a school in Kibera, a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi,...
View from the Underside and the “Greatness” of America
This week Philadelphia has played host to the Democratic National Convention. Lofty words and great promises have been made. Tears have been shed, anger expressed (both in and outside the convention) and numerous demonstrations have gone on amidst the sweltering heat...
Response to My White Friend
For white folks, if we had “the talk,” it was about sex, but for black folks this talk is about how to behave when stopped by the police and other white authority figures, so that you don’t get killed or hurt.
“We are at War”
This morning I woke up to the news of a sniper killing five Dallas police officers and injuring several others. The shooting occurred at the end of a peaceful demonstration to protest the police-inflicted deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando...
Letter from Faith Leaders to Congress – Pass Gun Legislation
Today leaders from 26 faith-based organization, including Bryan Miller from Heeding God's Call, stood with hundreds of other people calling on Congress to pass meaningful gun legislation. Even as House Speaker Paul Ryan considers sanctioning Rep. John Lewis for...
Kumquat Marmalade and Misplaced Hope
A week ago my brother from California sent me a box of kumquats, a small and coveted fruit that looks like a mini-orange. However, when you bite into a kumquat, you are in for a surprise. What you will encounter is a contrast of tastes that is hard to describe,...
Request: Support My Ride for fighting Multiple Sclerosis – Bike to the Bay
Dear Friends, As you may know, several years ago when my knees started hurting from all the pounding of years of running and basketball, I took up biking. Now most mornings and weekends, I am riding my bike somewhere. For the last 3 years I have also been riding to...
A Call to Moral Responsibility in the Funding of Public Schools
We owe this teacher more than that. We owe his principal more than that. We owe more to the principals standing with me and the staff and teachers at their schools. And most importantly we owe the students in our schools more than that. It is our responsibility and the Legislature’s responsibility to do better by these folks. Not just a fiscal responsibility, not just a legal responsibility, but a moral and ethical responsibility.
Driving Me Crazy
Looks like what drives me crazyDon’t have no effect on you –But I’m gonna keep on at itTil it drives you crazy too(“Evil,” Langston Hughes) Though I have read and studied many of Langston Hughes’ poems, I had not heard this one until a few weeks ago when...
Learning to Walk in the Dark
“Hello darkness, my old friendI've come to talk with you againBecause a vision softly creepingLeft its seeds while I was sleepingAnd the vision that was planted in my brainStill remains within the sound of silence” ...
A Good Man, a Complicated Relationship and the Measure of Greatness
Dad and I in 2012 (Note: My father, Darrell “Derry” Boyd, died on May 3, 2016 of natural causes at the age of 89. For the last two years of his life he lived happily in a skilled nursing facility in Wayzata, MN, but for the years previous he had lived a full,...