Episode 23: Activist Otis Moss III, author of Dancing in the Darkness
A conversation with activist and filmmaker Otis Moss III about his film Otis’ Dream, retribution, spirituality, and more
Welcome to Madang.
Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars on religion, culture, and everything in between.
Here in the 23rd episode of Madang, I converse with activist and filmmaker Otis Moss III about his book Dancing in the Darkness.
Moss is senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. He is a preacher, poet, activist, author, community organizer, scholar, filmmaker, and founder of The Unashamed Media Group. In October 2020, Moss created Otis’ Dream, a short film about his grandfather’s unsuccessful attempt to vote in 1946. The film has received numerous awards and acclaim across the country.
Moss was identified by the Baylor University George W. Truett Theological Seminary as “one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language” in 2018. Along with his ministerial duties, he is also a professor of homiletics at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia.
We discuss Moss’s open letter to his son Elijah, retribution, the genealogy in Matthew, Martin Luther King Jr., spirituality, and more. It is a fantastic conversation about how we can build relationships amid pain and difficulties and also become spiritual people in times of darkness.
