Phil Allen Jr. - The Prophetic Lens: The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier

Praise for The Prophetic Lens

Phil Allen Jr. is the ancient-present prophetic voice of our time. With surgical precision, Allen excavates the black experience as it is historically ensconced in the narrative of America. He utilizes the camera as a historical living witness and considers its ethical implications in anti-Black injustice. Allens prophetic voice and courageous hope deserve consideration in the halls of truth-telling ancestors. He is the one his ancestors prayed for. His is a courageous invitation into reimagination.

Ins Velsquez-McBryde, co-lead pastor of The Church We Hope For, preacher, reconciler, and speaker

From a bridge in Selma to a backroad in Georgia to a street curb in Minneapolis, the camera has captured the truth of injustices against Black lives, from generation to generation. But perhaps until now, weve not dived deeply enough into the cultural, historical, and theological implications of the camera as an instrument of justice. In The Prophetic Lens, Phil Allen Jr. testifies to the power of the lens, through his own lens, as a Black man in America. Allen is an author and educator, but hes also a theologian and filmmaker. And its in this creative collision and collaboration of varied vocations, alongside his own lived experiences, that Allen ushers forth a prophetic narrative that is timely, timeless, and true. Come to this work with ears to hear and eyes to see. In so doing, you will witness a truth teller in his element, guiding us to a justice that rolls like rivers and film reels, one movement at a time.

Bobby Harrison, co-lead pastor of The Church We Hope For

We all saw how an eyewitnesss camera recording brought a modicum of justice to George Floyds family. Phil Allen connects todays headlines to the ancient prophetic tradition in brilliant and evocative ways. He issues an inspiring call to take up a camera as a weapon against the principalities and powers that oppress our brothers and sisters. We will all begin to see far more clearly via his Prophetic Lens.

Craig Detweiler, dean, Grand Canyon Universitys College of Arts and Media

This work is an excellent introduction to the life-giving force the camera has been and is in honoring the sacred journey of African Americans. This work extends the conversation that Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth started as they, like Phil Allen, see the camera lens as a witness to the dignity and sacredness of African American life. Powerful, inspiring, enlightening, and prophetic.

Ralph Basui Watkins, The Peachtree Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, Columbia Theological Seminary

Phil Allen Jr. is the Howard Thurman of our timea theologian, philosopher, educator, as well as an antiracism scholar. Allen brings a fresh and new perspective to the social justice movement. In this revelatory work, Allen animates the video camera as the protagonist in what he calls the prophetic movement for justice. By breathing life into the video camera, he simultaneously breathes new life into those of us whove been shouting from the margins. This book is an essential companion as we continue our March to Zion.

Rodney D. Smith, EdD, vice president for access and engagement, William Jewell College

The Prophetic Lens reminds us that all truth requires a witness. When it comes to the reality of the black experience in America, the camera lens has emerged as the urgent witness we have needed to tell our stories. Phil Allen Jr. is masterful with words. His writing in The Prophetic Lens is culturally relevant, historically accurate, and deeply theological. Anyone reading this will walk away in gratitude at the mastery of a cameras ability to capture injustice and equally troubled thinking of all those same injustices that have not been caught on camera.

Khristi Lauren Adams, dean of spiritual life and equity, The Hill School, and author of Parable of the Brown Girl and Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way

The power of an image can influence a movement. For Phil Allen Jr., images from photography and film reveal incontrovertible stories about pain and creative hope, trauma, and resilience in the midst of Black bodies suffering under white supremacy. In The Prophetic Lens, Allen urges us to immerse in testimony of the camera as a prophetic witness to reveal and to challenge race-related violence against Black bodies, minds, and souls. He is clear: the time for the visual truth-telling movement is now.

Lisa Withrow, leadership professor, independent scholar-author, founding coach and consultant at Clear Transition Strategies

Phil Allen Jr.

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

THE PROPHETIC LENS

The Camera and Black Moral Agency from MLK to Darnella Frazier

Copyright 2022 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (ISV) are from the Holy Bible: International Standard Version Release 2.0. Copyright 19962013 by the ISV Foundation. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY.

All emphasis on Scripture quotations has been added by the author.

Cover image: Kristin Miller

Cover design: Top image: Black Lives Matter Mural, 9 June 2020, copyright Jason White from Charlotte, NC, United States. Bottom image: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., 28 August 1963, copyright Rowland Sherman, U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service, NAID 542010.

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-8419-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-8420-4

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

To all those braves ones who dare to expose racism in all forms and inspire a new generation toward a new normal, a new consciousness, and a new community.

T hank you to any and everyone who offered encouragement as I penned this project during a pandemic, with constant reminders and triggers of racial injustice, and while completing a doctoral degree. Shout-out to Will Bergkamp for believing in this project from the beginning and walking with me through its development.

A few years ago, I wrote a letter to my children, partly to share with them a few aspects of my childhood that were different from theirs, but primarily to encourage them to take full advantage of the boundless possibilities that lay in store for them. The letter was in part a spiritual dowry of the values that were instilled in me by my parents and community when I was young but also a mini memoir of the life lessons I had learned as a result of my own experiences. I remembered sharing with them examples of how my parents often sternly instructed my brother and me to stay in close proximity to them when out in public spaces. I explicitly wanted them to know that my wife and I had intentionally done the opposite when they were young. I told them that we had made a conscious decision to allow them to roam freeat safe distances, of coursewhen we were out in public spaces like parks and shopping malls. We wanted them to feel and know that the world was theirs.