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Intersections with Phil Allen, Jr.\n \nEpisode: 021 \u201cUnknownland: Blackness as the \u2018In-Between\u2019\u201d \nAirdate: March 1, 2021\nLength: 11:13\nGuests: N/A\n \nIn this episode Phil takes a different approach. As Black History Month closes and March is the recognition and celebration of Women\u2019s History, Phil shares a poem that is both a tribute to Black History and his mother. \u201cUnknownland\u201d is a piece that is born out of reflection on what it means to be black in America. It\u2019s about living in a perpetual sense of liminality\u2014in-between space; space of transition. How this poem intersects with Women\u2019s History Month is that poetry has opened up so many doors (preaching, teaching, writing, etc.) for Phil and his mother was the main inspiration for him believing he could be a poet when he was a young child. Women\u2019s History Month begins with the history of his mom as the central figure and influence on his life. This poem is his mother\u2019s fruit.\nHere is an excerpt of \u201cUnknownland\u201d:\n\u201c\u2026 The camera captures the violent \u201cin-between\u201d the \u201cUnknownland\u201d\nThe space between Gethsemane and Calvary\nBetween the cross and the tomb\nBetween death and life\nIn this purgatorial real estate \xa0\nThat black bodies inhabit\nDignity is stripped because blackness has been deemed invalid\nThe iPhone or the Android records the annihilation in real time\nPaused by the invisible virus to be still and witness the\nManifestation of the visible one\nKneeling in full worship posture\nSacrificing black life once again to white ideological gods\nWhat are the odds we are traumatized?...\u201d\nPhil asks that you take time to reflect on the lines, phrases, and words in this poem and ask yourself what they might mean to you. What could it possibly mean to feel as though being Black is an \u201cin-between\u201d space? What could an \u201cin-between\u201d space be for your own life?\n____________\nPhil Allen, Jr (http://www.philallenjr.com). is a Los Angeles-based pastor, social justice activist, filmmaker and author. Allen\u2019s book Open Wounds explores the murder of Nate Allen\u2014Phil Allen\u2019s grandfather\u2014in the Jim Crow era of South Carolina and how that traumatic event resonated through generations of his family. Open Wounds \u2013 which is based on the Allen-produced documentary (http://www.openwoundsdoc.com) of the same name \u2013 was published on February 9, 2021. Allen is a Ph.D. student studying Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.