LUNCHEON ROUNDTABLES

Held monthly since the Coalition’s founding in 1992, our Community Luncheon Roundtables provide an intentional space for Durham residents to share information, hope, resources, and support in their collective pursuit of nonviolence.

A typical luncheon draws a diverse group of 40-60 folks representing Durham’s civic institutions, neighborhoods, congregations, and nonprofits into conversations that “tell the truth, listen for good news, and kick no one out.”

Join us in our familiar fourth-Thursday rhythm in 2024, in the fellowship hall of Elizabeth Street UMC (1209 N. Elizabeth Street). A delicious lunch is free to all, and every body is welcome.

Past Luncheon Roundtable Topics

2023

  • November/December 2023 – “Prescriptions for Repair & Listening that Heals” (feat. Azmen Johnson and community facilitators from Prescriptions for Repair)
  • October 2023 – “In Times of Violence…” (Table Conversation: Where do you locate yourself amid the (hi)stories of violence on display in this moment? What does it look like for you to ‘affirm life’ in the midst of those stories?)
  • September 2023 – “Counting to One with Durham Vigil Meditation (2022)” (Table Conversation: What does it mean—and ask of us—to hold one name in the way of this Vigil Meditation? What might an everyday practice of vigil or ‘one life witness’ look like for you?)
  • August 2023 – “Understanding the NC Sex Offender Registry” (feat. Paul Dubbeling, J.D.)
  • July 2023 – “Who’s Covering our Carers?” (feat. Rev. Dr. Fatimah Salleh of Curanopy Ministries)
  • June 2023 – NC Coalition For Alternatives to the Death Penalty
  • May 2023 – “RCND Celebrates CJRC” (feat. stories from our 20-year collaboration with Durham County’s Criminal Justice Resource Center)
  • April 2023 – “Creating Second-Chance Community” (Table Conversation: We listened to reentry stories from Coalition friends with first-hand experience building community in the wake of incarceration, asking one another: What does it look like to embrace and create a Durham shaped by second chances?)
  • March 2023 – “The HEART of Durham: Getting to Know our Community Safety Department” (Panelist Questions: We engaged our Community Safety neighbors working on the front lines of our values as a way of asking the enduring questions: who deserves our communal attention, and what kind?)
  • February 2023 – “When Vigil Ministry Goes to Court” (feat. stories of RCND court companions Jen Wichman, Annette Love, and Allison Tuttle) (Panelist Questions: How has being present to our public legal response shaped your understanding of Durham’s violence? What stories have been displaced, and what stories have emerged? How is your own story different after spending time in homicide court?) 
  • January 2023 – “Imagining Holistic Community with Jubilee Home” (Community Questions: Where does Jubilee Home’s holistic approach resonate for you? From where you sit, what are next steps toward building communities that embrace and empower whole people?)

2022

  • November/December 2022 – “Hello to Here (Part 3): Beginning Again” (Community Question: Where are you preparing to ‘begin again’ in this season? And/or, what do you find yourself ‘catching up with’ as you approach the work of re-beginning?
  • October 2022 – “Hello to Here (Part 2): How I Got Over” (feat. stories of formation from Joy Clark, Restorative Practices Associate, Dispute Resolution Center; and Marcia Owen, Co-Chair, Durham Community Safety & Wellness Taskforce) (Community Question: What do these stories of life/work evolution call to mind for you? How has our time apart been a formative season for you or your work?)
  • September 2022 – “Hello to Here” (Community Question: Some 30 months since our last Luncheon Roundtable, what name would you give to the place you now are? To what do you find yourself saying ‘hello’ in this space and time?)

2020

  • February 2020 – “After the Gunshots: Imagining a Community of Care Around Violent Death in Durham” (feat. Marion Bailey, Victim Care Coordinator, RCND; Grandmother of Javaun Graves [1995–2015]; Rev. Franklin Hanes, Hanes Funeral Service)
  • January 2020 – “Another Year in a Shared Place: What Are You Carrying Forward in 2020?” (Question: What’s one new [or renewed] work, love, hope, or resolve you’re carrying into 2020?)

2019

  • November/December 2019 – “Acknowledging Unspoken Grief in a Celebratory Season” (with Rev. Dr. Susan Dunlap, Duke Divinity School; Chaplain, Urban Ministries; Board Member, RCND)
  • October 2019 – “You and Five-0: Searching Out the ‘Community’ in ‘Community Policing'” (feat. BJ Council, You & Five-0)
  • September 2019 – We Are All Criminals (feat. Emily Baxter, Director, WAAC)
  • August 2019 – “Remembering Toni Morrison (1931–2019)” (with Rev. Dr. Fatimah Salleh & Maralis Mercado Emerson)
  • July 2019 – “Table Conversations: Public Safety in Durham” (Community Question: When and where have you felt most safe in Durham? What might that sense of safety look like in public, if shared by all?)
  • June 2019 – “Poetic Justice with the Carolina Justice Policy Center” (Elizabeth Simpson, Assoc. Director, CJPC; Elizabeth Hambourger, Staff Attorney, CDPL; Danielle Cortez, aka Blaize the Poet)
  • May 2019 – “Counting the Costs of Cash Bail” (feat. Andrea ‘Muffin’ Hudson, NC Community Bail Fund of Durham)
  • April 2019 – “Neighbors Making Durham Better: Celebrating Our Returning Citizens” (feat. Charles Horry, Pilgrim UCC Faith Team; Demetrius Lynn, Durham’s Local Reentry Council; Wilbert ‘Pip’ Pipkin, Trinity Avenue Pres. Faith Team; Sandra Lassiter & Tony Carrington, City of Durham Welcome Home Program)
  • March 2019 – “Marking 20 Years with the Durham County Gun Safety Team” (feat. Retiring Coordinator Joanie Ross, Durham Co. Public Health) / “Steps Forward from the 2019 Faith Summit on Racism and Child Poverty” (feat. DeDreana Freeman & Cathy Rimer-Surles, Episcopalians United Against Racism)
  • February 2019 – “Responding to Durham’s Collective Violence” (feat. Marion Bailey, Grandmother of Javaun Graves [1995–2015]; Rev. Allen Jones, Change Paths Ministries, J&J Mortuary Services; Chuck Manning, Bull City United)
  • January 2019 – “A New Year in a Shared Place: What Are You Carrying Forward in 2019?” (Community Question: What [not so] new things are you carrying forward into 2019? And who’s carrying you?)

2018

  • November/December 2018 – A Fond ‘Farewell’ to Ruthy Jones (Retiring Vigil & Community Minister, RCND)
  • October 2018 – Participatory Budgeting in Durham (feat. Chuck Manning and Andrew Holland, City of Durham)
  • September 2018 – An Hour with the Life Lines Collective (feat. Leroy Mann & Lyle May)
  • August 2018 – A Conversation with Sheriff-Elect Clarence Birkhead 
  • July 2018 – Inside Restorative Justice Process (Part II): A Conversation with James Berish (participant in first formal pretrial RJ process in NC Superior Court) and Marcia Owen (Coordinating Circle, RJ Durham)
  • June 2018 – Inside Restorative Justice Process: Part I
  • May 2018 – A Conversation on “The Power of Love” (feat. Rev. Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church)
  • April 2018 – Reentry Week: Durham’s Local Reentry Council (feat. Karen Shaw and Demetrius Lynn, Local Reentry Council)
  • March 2018 – “The Shared Work of Our Luncheon Community: Good News from Good Friends” (feat. Marcia Owen & Kacey Reynolds Schedler, RJ Durham; Dave Crispell, Director, Jubilee Home; Tammy Rodman, Pilgrimage Coordinator, DurhamCares)
  • February 2018 – “Voices from the RCND Vigil Ministry”
  • January 2018 – “Who’s Walking with Us Into the New Year” (Community Question: What work or sense of community do you bring to this luncheon community in this new year? )
  • November/December 2017 – Durham Police Chief C.J. Davis