Maya Angelou Hosts 'Evening Of Healing'

NEW YORK - Dr. Maya Angelou, one of the great voices of contemporary literature invites the world community to join her and friends, national radio personality Tom Joyner, and renowned hip hop artist and actor Common for an evening of healing on Saturday, November 7, 2009, 8:00 p.m. at the historic Riverside Church in Morningside Heights.
Saving The Race: The Human Race, presented by the Community Healing Network, Inc. (CHN) in partnership with The Riverside Church is the launch of a global movement for intra-racial healing and a call to the world for interracial reconciliation.

Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an historic resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and segregation. In June, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution also apologizing, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 ½ centuries of slavery. Saving The Race: The Human Race is a call for healing to address the intangible damages that still remain as a result of these historical ills.

Inspired by Dr. Maya Angelou’s wisdom that we “take a day to heal from the lies that have been told to us, and the ones we’ve told ourselves.” CHN issued a Call to Healing and Renewal to encourage people everywhere to put the work of healing at the top of their agendas.

Dr. Angelou returns to The Riverside Church to lead an intergenerational gathering with Common and Tom Joyner to celebrate healing and to challenge the audience to seek emancipation from the internalized myths of inferiority.

Community Healing Network (CHN), the creator and sponsor of Community Healing DaysSM, is a diverse and growing group of individuals, faith communities, and civic groups working to promote emotional and physical health and wellness for Black people. We are united by a shared commitment to the emotional emancipation of Black people everywhere.

The Riverside Church (www.theriversidechurchny.org) is an interracial, interdenominational and international church built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1927. The 2,400-member Riverside Church in Morningside Heights has a rich tradition of providing a forum for important civic and spiritual leaders. Past speakers include Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President William J. Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Fidel Castro, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.