Season 2, Episode 6: Theopoetics in Color by Drs. Oluwatomisin Oredein & Lakisha Lockhart-Rusch

Dr. Mitzi J. Smith's guests are Drs. Oluwatomisin Oredein and Lakisha Lockhart-Rusch, the co-editors of Theopoetics in Color: Embodied Approaches to Theological Discourses (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans, 2024). Available at Amazon.com, Eerdman's publishing, and other book sellers.

Dr.  Oluwatomisin Oredein is Assistant Professor in Black Religious Traditions, Constructive Theology and Ethics at Brite Divinity School, Texas. Dr. Oredein is a graduate of The University of Virginia (BA) and Duke Divinity School (MDiv). She completed her ThD at Duke in Theology and Ethics in May 2017. Her dissertation examined the theology and ethics of Mercy Oduyoye, which is the first time someone has focused this kind of attention on this theologian. In order to follow up on this work, she is in the process of completing a book which is tentatively titled, Mercy, Me: The Theo-Feminism of Mercy Amba Oduyoye. In addition, Dr. Oredein has contributed several articles to academic and professional journals, chapters and essays in edited volumes, and has published several pieces of poetry. She is already taking leadership in the academy and guild by providing lectures and presentations at meetings and has participated in workshops at the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology. Dr. Oredein is a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Dr. Lakisha Lockhart-Rusch is Assistant Professor of Christian Education at Union Presbyterian Seminary, Richmond, VA.  Lockhart’s research interests are in the areas of religious education; practical, liberation, and Womanist theologies; ethics and society; multiple intelligences; embodied faith and pedagogies; theological aesthetics’ theopoetics; creativity, imagination, and play. Her teaching takes seriously the benefits and necessity of play, movement, aesthetics, creative arts, and embodiment. For Lockhart, the body is a locus for doing theology and theological reflection.

She has authored and co-authored numerous publications and book chapters, including United Against Racism: Churches for Change: Facilitator’s Guide; “Enfleshing Catechesis Through Embodied Space” in the book Together Along the Way: Conversations Inspired by the Directory for Catechesis“; “Let’s Dance: Zumba and the Imago Dei of Beautiful Black Bodies” in The Other Journal: An Intersection of Theology & Culture; and “My Wildest Dream: A Letter to My Black Son” in Religious Education. Lockhart also was featured in the “Just Womanist” series for The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership.