About Our Good Life Project

Rather than "return to a normal" that was never healthy for many Black, Indigenous and underserved communities,
we hope our voices will illuminate a path toward a better future.

We are working at a critical juncture.
Many of us are rethinking how we live our lives.

“The pandemic has forced people to stop and think about what they really want to do… The most important thing one might do during a drawn-out crisis is to prepare for the aftermath” (Giovanni René Rodriguez, 2020).

As we prepare for the pandemic’s “aftermath,” what priorities should we center?
How may we form healthier relationships with the land and among ourselves?
And what does the good life look like now?


With generous support from Morgan State University and the Henry Luce Foundation, this project builds on our 2020 Relief and Restoration Work to examine and document how marginalized communities in American cities navigate the pandemic to negotiate structural barriers and to imagine better futures.

Our work documents, supports, and helps bring to life visions of a healthy city in collaboration with religious, spiritual, and moral leaders, communities, and organizations.

The CRC provides academic, moral, logistic, funding, and other support for scholars to engage in this work with community partners. The activities and outcomes of the work include:

  • Quarterly meeting with PIs

  • Community Engagements: events, training workshops, project materials, and services provided for community partners (e.g. paid intern, grant writing, etc.) 

  • Oral history & ephemera collections (e.g. photography and videography) from each member of the consortium/city/location

  • Toolkit for community engaged work

  • Short documentary films on the work of all of the consortium members

  • Reflection pieces by research fellows

  • Public engagements with content collection (curriculum, public dialogues and workshops, blog discussions, tours, etc.)

Our Good Life Project was seeded by Harold Morales, Rupa Pillai, and Kayla Wheeler with support from Amrita Bhandari, Ariel Mejia, Sierra Lawson, Fatima Bamba and many others from the Center for Religion and Cities’ collective. 

To learn more about the project and/or discuss potential ways to collaborate, please contact us here and write “Good Life” in the subject line.