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Local nonprofit featured in documentary aims to transform culture of RVA

Posted at 12:13 AM, Mar 28, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-28 00:29:08-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- A Richmond based non profit and its music ministry are being featured in a documentary.

“11am: Hope for America’s Most Segregated Hour,” inspired by the famous quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a film featuring the nonprofit Arrabon and its band, Urban Doxology and its efforts to promote racial reconciliation and healing.

“I see often times people get hopeless when you see the problem is clearer than the solution is. What you’ll see in this movie is when we learn how to work together and co-create together and listen and be stretched by people who are different than us, but we stay in it and commit to co-create new cultural artifacts together, than we can have a future that is better than the past we experienced,” said Arrabon founder David Bailey.

Urban Doxology

“11am” features musical performances by Urban Doxology, and its musical interns, showing how leadership development and culture-making is an effective path toward reconciliation for America's most segregated hour.

The film also captures testimonies of its black artists who sang in a prayer vigil in Charlottesville the eve of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally.

“We are here today because of the culture that was made yesterday. So, if we want to do something different for a better future, we got to create new culture today for the future we want to see tomorrow,” said Bailey. “What I hope people get out of the film is an imagination of what’s possible if you commit to engaging reconciliation and co-creating with people that’s different than you.”

Arrabon founder David Bailey

“To make this work long term you can’t just be like here is the white things we do, here are the black things we are going to. We’re mix them together,”  said Urban Doxology band member Stephen Roach. “You need to create a new culture, because we’re not used to being one people.”

“We kind of like walk through life together and hold each other accountable and we’re able to share this message. It's really, really huge for me.” said Urban Doxology singer Jessica Fox.

They hope the film will help write a new narrative through reconciliation starting in Ameirca’s most segregated hour.

Jessica Fox

“Richmond has been known as the former capital of the Confederacy and I think that’s a significant part of our history but our hope, prayers and desires is that Richmond will become the capital of reconciliation, a place of healing and belonging for everybody.”

The film premieres April 8 at The Byrd Theatre on Sunday, April 8, at 2 p.m. The event is open to the public. Tickets may be purchased for $5 at 11amTheMovie.com.

Arrabon was started by David and Joy Bailey in 2008 in the Church Hill neighborhood. The organization exists to equip individuals and communities to effectively engage in reconciliation, via three main avenues: training, culture-making and leadership development.

“11am”

The musical group and ministry, Urban Doxology hosts a dynamic annual songwriting internship that uses songwriting as a means to develop leaders who write songs to use as tools for reconciliation.

The band evolved out of the Urban Songwriting Internship Program that is a partnership with Arrabon and East End Fellowship (EEF).

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