2026 Forward Religions Conference

The 2026 Forward Religions Conference, themed “Welcome Home,” commemorates more than 250 years of Black religious traditions and the 10th anniversary of the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life (CSAARL). The conference considers home as a physical, spiritual, intellectual, and digital space where Black life, faith, and culture are preserved, transformed, and imagined anew.

Across its program of conversations, performances, technology demonstrations, and intergenerational exchange, scholars, faith leaders, artists, innovators, and cultural creators will explore Black religious history, the future of the Black Church, technology and sacred imagination, cultural memory, and emerging forms of spiritual and communal life.

When: Friday, November 13 through Monday, November 16, 2026. The detailed conference program lists events from November 13 through November 15 and describes the main program as taking place across three days.

Schedule: The event listing displays a general time of 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m., while the detailed program provides the following session times.

Friday, November 13: At 4:00 p.m. in the Arts and Industries Building, the conference opens with an Opening and Commemoration marking the nation’s 250th anniversary and CSAARL’s first decade. The program includes the Pauli Murray Lecture with Yolanda Pierce, Ph.D., focusing on belonging, freedom, justice, and the continuing work of Black religious traditions. A plenary conversation, “CSAARL @ 10: Center Directors Past & Present,” features Teddy Reeves, Ph.D., in conversation with Brad Braxton, Ph.D., Erika Gault, Ph.D., and Yolanda Pierce, Ph.D., examining CSAARL’s history, accomplishments, and future.

At 7:00 p.m. in the Arts and Industries Building, “Celebrating CSAARL @ 10: A House (Music) Party” combines the atmosphere of a fellowship hall, church basement, and house party. The celebration includes fellowship, food, music, stories, artists, collaborators, and friends connected to CSAARL’s first decade. It begins with a House Invocation by the Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley and the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas before moving into music and dancing.

Saturday, November 14: At 9:00 a.m. in the Arts and Industries Building, Breakfast and Gathering provides time for attendees to meet, reconnect, and prepare for the day’s program.

At 10:00 a.m., Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley delivers the Margaret Turner Keynote, “The Black Church at the Nation’s 250th.” The keynote honors Margaret Turner, whose fundraising leadership helped establish the museum’s philanthropic foundation, and considers the relationship among Black faith communities, philanthropy, institution-building, public life, and the nation’s next era.

The following plenary, “Black Religious Traditions at the Nation’s 250th,” features Melanie Jones-Quarles, Ph.D., in conversation with Bishop Yvette Flunder, Monica Coleman, Ph.D., Kristian A. Smith, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, and Iya Funlayo Wood, Ph.D. The discussion examines the breadth and diversity of Black religious life, including churches, ancestral traditions, womanist thought, queer religious communities, new spiritual movements, and practices that resist simple categorization.

Lunch is scheduled for noon.

At 1:15 p.m., Fallon Wilson, Ph.D., introduces the debut of the Multi-faith Public Interest Tech Curriculum. This is followed by “We Have Come This Far By Tech: Black Religion, Home, and Techno-Possibility,” a plenary led by LaRisa Anderson, Ph.D., in conversation with Yaba Blay, Ph.D., Jamie Broadnax, Philip Butler, Ph.D., Angel Clark, Ph.D., and Tamura Lomax, Ph.D. The panel explores artificial intelligence, digital storytelling, online communities, archives, entrepreneurship, and emerging technologies, asking how Black memory, creativity, spirituality, ethics, and imagination can shape technological futures.

At 2:30 p.m., NEXT TECH LAB: Sacred Futures, a juried edition co-sponsored by the Black Tech Futures Research Institute, presents live demonstrations, platforms, and emerging technologies. The interactive showcase includes projects involving artificial intelligence, extended- and virtual-reality environments, digital archives, experimental platforms focused on memory and migration, computational storytelling, and cultural-preservation tools.

At 7:00 p.m. in NMAAHC’s Oprah Winfrey Theater, an evening musical concert, “Celebrating the Sound of the Black Church,” honors musical traditions that have moved from sanctuaries and choir lofts into concert halls, popular culture, and other forms of public expression. The page identifies the concert but does not provide a detailed performer lineup.

Sunday, November 15: At 10:30 a.m. in NMAAHC’s Oprah Winfrey Theater, Opening Remarks begin the final day, followed by the announcement of the NEXT TECH LAB winner.

At 10:45 a.m., “Future of Black Religion — The Next 250” features Dr. Anthony Pinn in conversation with members of the CSAARL Scholarly Advisory Council. The closing-oriented discussion considers changing institutions, new spiritual identities, technological and demographic shifts, cultural innovation, evolving forms of community, and emerging religious and nonreligious life.

At noon, “Sunday Is for ‘Sinners’: In Conversation with Saul Williams” brings CSAARL Curator Brittany Levingston, Ph.D., together with Dr. DeAnna Daniels, Ph.D., and Saul Williams. The conversation explores the religious worlds, rituals, symbols, sounds, spiritual tensions, and representations of Black sacred life in the film “Sinners,” as well as the broader connections among Williams’s poetry, music, performance, spirituality, politics, and cultural criticism.

Speakers and presenters: Participants named on the page include LaRisa Anderson-Horne, Ph.D.; Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett of Myoken-ji Temple; Yaba Blay, Ph.D.; Brad Braxton, Ph.D.; Jamie Broadnax; Philip Butler; Angel Clark, Ph.D.; Monica Coleman, Ph.D.; Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley; DeAnna Daniels, Ph.D.; Bishop Yvette Flunder; Iya Funlayo, Ph.D.; Erika Gault, Ph.D.; Brittany Levingston, Ph.D.; Tamura Lomax, Ph.D.; Yolanda Pierce, Ph.D.; Anthony Pinn, Ph.D.; Melanie Quarles, Ph.D.; Teddy Reeves, Ph.D.; Kristian A. Smith; Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley; Saul Williams; and Fallon Wilson, Ph.D. The page also identifies Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley as senior pastor of Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts; Yolanda Pierce as professor and dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School; Anthony Pinn as Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religion at Rice University; and Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett as the residing priest of Myoken-ji Temple.

Venue: National Museum of African American History and Culture, with sessions also scheduled in the Arts and Industries Building and in NMAAHC’s Oprah Winfrey Theater.

Type: Workshops and conference programming.

Tickets: Free. Registration is required.

Run time: Not stated. Individual session times are provided, but the page does not give an overall duration for the conference or its sessions.

Ages: Not stated.

Accessibility: Not stated.