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Psacoya
I feel like black culture informs, a lot of culture.

Jeheli
Yeah, I’ve felt that with black culture. There’s a sense of always cultivating home wherever we go because we’ve had to be displaced throughout the world, and also had to quickly adapt to things being thrown at us constantly.

So, I guess a principle that I’ve taken away from cultivating home is, if I’m in a group of people I’m meeting for the first time, I intentionally will make sure I’m talking to everybody, and not just saying, “oh hi hi.” I’m intentionally trying to get to hear their story and fellowship with them. And I think all the time it’s because I understand what it feels like to be ostracized, I understand what it feels like to be the outsider, the other.

I think as well, people can just pick up on social cues or, you know, who are the people in this group who can seem a bit out of the margin? I will intentionally go out of my way to make sure that this person feels like they are here, they are celebrated, and you know, if time runs out, I’ll definitely say like, “I’m so sorry I didn’t have time to talk to you” whatever it is. But you know it’s about cultivating home in that way because we know what it’s like to be mistaken for somebody who doesn’t have enough worth or, like all of these labels that kind of get thrown and misplaced onto us.

And I think as well, another principle I’ve learned is just loyalty you know? Just that iconic unspoken head nod when you see another black person walking anywhere. You just like give them the nod, or you’ll recognize that they’re there.

Psacoya
Yeah. It’s like, “I see you sis!”

Jeheli
Yes! I see you, I hear you. I think that’s so cool because actually, we bring that into the Kingdom in terms of, when we recognize “oh this is my brother, this is my sister,” it changes the way we look at people entirely. You know? That’s what I’ve noticed.