Day 3: Africatown


The Address: 1959 Bay Bridge Rd, Mobile, Alabama


The Story: This story has it all. Dahomey warriors, a landmark legal case, the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade, a brief appearance by Zora Neale Hurston, a re-discovered shipwreck, and a resilient community that, despite struggling with environmental racism for most of its existence, continues to persevere.


Located three miles south of downtown Mobile on the banks of the Mobile River lies historic Africatown, a community formed by a group of 32 West Africans who arrived in the U.S in 1860. Today, their descendants continue the fight to keep their legacy and culture alive.


Africatown is more than a story about the past, on today’s walk we will learn about the modern-day Africatown movement and the neighborhoods around the country that are using the Africatown model to build vibrant communities for the future.



Black Neighborhoods | Day 3 | Have You Heard of AfricaTown?

GirlTrek's epic 21-day walking meditation series to remember where we came from and to gather strength for the road ahead. We celebrate Black stories and the lessons of our ancestors to help guide us through these uncertain times. Each episode, is a conversation on learning, living and elevating to our highest self with guidance from lessons of the past. Hosted by GirlTrek Co-founders Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison. Produced by: Ebony Andrews

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Chelsea Johnson, the CEO of Commonsense Childbirth, is walking and talking with Morgan and Vanessa and women from around the world on a special Mother's Day edition of Sisterhood Saturday. Chelsea is the Founder of
Commonsense Childbirth and she and her community are rallying with GirlTREK this Mother’s Day weekend as we honor Black mothers and Black motherhood by taking
walks dedicated to the women whose footsteps we follow in.

Special Edition: Mother’s Day Walk & Talk

The great spiritual leader, Iyanla Vanzant joins the co-founders of GirlTREK in a powerful conversation about generational healing and walking forward in faith. A must listen for anyone looking for inspiration during uncertain times. 

A Special Healing Conversation with Iyanla Vanzant

Together we will reflect on our journey together, reinforce and uplift what is important to us, and honor the work of the people who power this movement. 
Let this be a personal moment of pause and praise for all that you have have personally mastered, learned, and walked through this year. 

Special Edition | Victory Lap | Season 2023

REFLECTION:
Think about control. We control the smells in our homes with incense and plugins. We control bacteria with Lysol. We try to control viruses with vitamin C. We control our babies. We'll burp, we'll reprimand with pinches. When you're at church you get pinched or you get the side-eye from the choir stand. We are good at controlling because we know the past and we’re responsibly fearful of the future. When we thought about self-control and knowing that control has been our superpower, from binding our bellies up to our hair to everything we know, controlling our femininity so that people don’t attack us. We know how to control. When we are trying to control the world around us, it's like a mightiness. It is a tightness, and when you do it for long enough, it is exhausting. 
 
Self-control is knowing now that you have everything in your power because you are divinely connected. 
 
Because all you have is right now. It is not the fear of the past. It is not the anticipation or fear of the future, but it is the power of right now that you can choose every moment of your life to get more and more awake or to fall deeper and deeper asleep. We are here. God has not given us the spirit of fear. Self-control is fearlessness. It is knowing that I have a constant choice every morning. Self-control is the mechanism by which we employ all of the other Fruits of the Spirit. 
 
 
PRAYER:
Eternal, all-wise, all-knowing, loving, matchless, creator, God Lord almighty, you are wonderful. You are loving. You are the beginning, the end, the Alpha, the Omega. You are our everything, Lord God and we love you. We love you Lord, and we lift up our hands to worship you, oh Lord, for our heart longs to be closer and closer to you. 
 
You ask us to bring our prayers and petitions to you so we can tell you right now to give us the power that we need, to give us the love that we need, and to give us the self-control and self-discipline that we need to move and do the work that you have called for us to do. 
 
We ask, oh Lord, that you continue to hide this work within our hearts so that we can continue to be strengthened to move closer to you, so that in those moments where we lack control of our minds, of our bodies, of our thoughts, we can automatically be brought closer to you so that the control we seek you take over for us. Lord God, it's all about your power, your power that gives us courage to do all that you called us to do. 
 
Amen. 


"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20






Special Edition | Prayer Trek | Day 9: SELF-CONTROL

You have to know that the calling placed on your life will mean you will have to navigate many rocky terrains, many dark places, facing many attacks, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The enemy only targets those who are doing good works. When you face these trials and tribulations, you will feel the urge to quit, to give in, or to act out of your character. That's when faith comes in. Faith is the idea of going beyond your fears and acting on what God has instilled in you. It’s about taking the first two steps and God taking on the rest. It’s about continuing to move forward, because you know that victory is on the other side. 
 
Remember, as adversity comes, know that in the end you will be able to tell your testimony and encourage others to stay faithful. 


God, we thank you for protecting us, for answering our prayers. God, we thank you for our faithfulness to you because without that, we can't commit to anything. God, we love you, we honor you, we praise you. We are all making sacrifices, God, and we hope that you see that. It can be daunting to think about even getting out of the bed and doing other things, being a mom, a wife, a sister, a friend. We work every day and try to carve time out in our lives to be healthy, God, but we know that everything that is great is because of you, God. We ask you to give us strength and courage. 
 
Most of all, give us courage to know that we were made for this, we are made to be great, we were made to worship you, we were made to be just in the image of you, God. 
 
We are always going to be careful to give you the praise and the glory, and the honor belongs to you, Jesus. In your name we pray, Amen.

Black Neighborhoods | Day 3 | Have You Heard of AfricaTown?

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