Tallu@WoodmontCC.org
Artist and activist, Tallu Schuyler, grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been full of life for her church and denomination since she was a child. She has found meaningful work in her local church, Tennessee’s Camp and Conference program, the General Youth Council, Disciples Peace Fellowship and Week of Compassion. Tallu loves the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for giving her models of active faith, that responds to real, lived human experience. Tallu likes solving problems and working with her hands. She has an undergraduate degree in Fibers (papermaking, bookbinding, weaving, natural dyes, fabric design) from the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee, which gave her opportunities to do both. Her B.F.A. thesis show focused on papermaking with local plants, and she loved the project for what it taught her about how we can make something from nothing, and for keeping her outdoors. She received her Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York in May 2008, where she focused her studies on art, worship, ritual and liberation theology. At Union, Tallu worked closely with The Poverty Initiative, a group of religious and community leaders dedicated to building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor. In seminary, Tallu served as the Seminarian Intern for Week of Compassion, the refugee, relief and development ministry fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—a job that allowed her to write, preach and visit Disciples congregations all over the country. In 2007, she had the opportunity to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of a Week of Compassion delegation to experience compassion on the ground, to think critically about the difference between charity and justice and to witness the lasting power of ecumenical partnership. Tallu has just returned to the United States after spending five months in Nicaragua, where she was working with Church World Service as part of a regional food security program that prioritizes economic development, sustainable agriculture and women’s empowerment in poor, rural communities across the country. In her spare time, Tallu loves to take photographs and grow, cook and eat food.
