Name: Sanctuary at Mother Bethel - A special exhibition & artist talk
Start: 2025-09-28T15:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-28T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

Art as a catalyst for advocacy. Art as a catalyst for ministry. Today's immigrant justice link to Mother Bethel as a sanctuary site in 1795
About this Event

Sanctuary at Mother Bethel

Join us for a special exhibition reception and artist talk of the Sanctuary documentary photography project hosted by Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the honored first AME church established, as part of its 250th anniversary commemoration this year under the theme, Celebrating Black Excellence from America's Beginning. Immigrant justice advocacy and ministry today can be grounded in the fascinating history of Mother Bethel as one of the earliest recorded sites of sanctuary. Find inspiration for our collective work toward liberation in the current climate of fascist dehumanization and white supremacist xenophobia. RSVP [free ticket selection] available to attend the program in-person or view via livestream. Light refreshments will be served.

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT Documenting the heart of Sanctuary opens up an unspoken dimension of humanity that needs to be amplified within the current national discourse surrounding the undocumented and asylum-seekers who are being demonized, criminalized and disappeared. This dimension rests in a sacred principle cultivated and guarded by faith communities. While embodied in symbols and enshrined in sacred spaces, sanctuary moves beyond these tangibles to exist within our hearts, extended to cover and serve with compassion, justice and integrity. This documentary photography project amplifies and reclaims “sanctuary” within our cities and ourselves.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Dora Muhammad is the founder and lead principal of The AWARE Project. An artist, author and advocate for women's, children's and human rights. A second-generation immigrant from the Caribbean. Creative Grace Conversations convener. Poet and music lover. Public theologian. Literary midwife. Public policy sculptor. Interfaith community shaman. She serves as the co-lead for the immigration ministry at the historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in D.C.