Poet’s Press: ‘My Church Poem 2025’ by Buddy Hannah

Editor’s Note: Poet’s Press is a quarterly series, presented in partnership with the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival, that features news poems — an experimental form that examines local people, places, and events through a personal, poetic lens. Paired with original artwork, each piece invites readers to engage more intimately and reflectively with the life of our community. Companion artwork created by Maya James.

My Church Poem 2025

This morning, as I embraced the stillness of a new day

I told myself

This will be the day I write my church poem

But this would not be a poem about just any church 

This would be a poem about Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church

or Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church, as it is known throughout the Kalamazoo community

This would be a poem about a church that has been a spiritual voice in the Kalamazoo community since 1855, when Rev. Robinson Jeffries relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan, from South Bend, Indiana, to assist in organizing and developing a local chapter of the African American Episcopal Church

with the help of 12 kindred souls

Allen Chapel African American Episcopal Church was established 

In my poem, I would tell how Allen Chapel came from humble beginnings in a small wooden building on the corner of Pitcher and Water Street, where horse-drawn buggies crowded together outside

while inside, church members cooled themselves with handheld fans in the hot summer heat and were warmed by wood-burning stoves during cold Michigan winters

Thus, the history and growth of Allen Chapel began

I would write about how, in 1867, a newer building was built across the street at 307 Water Street, which served the growing number of parishioners during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

God was blessing Allen Chapel

But God’s blessing didn’t stop there

In 1913, with its membership continuing to grow,

land was purchased at 143 E. Frank Street, near N. Edwards Street, where the church remained until 1980, when the congregation grew even larger

And it was time to move again

In the summer of 1980, the congregation moved into what was then Simpson United Methodist Church at 804 West North Street and made it its new home

In 2025, Allen Chapel is still providing spiritual comfort to its members

still giving the community cultural pride

Horse-drawn buggies have been replaced by SUVs and luxury cars

and worshippers are now being cooled and warmed by a state-of-the-art heating and cooling system

while singing songs of praise in perfect harmony

God is still good 

Even in 2025

I told myself

This will be the day I write my church poem about Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church

But what does one write about a church that was spiritually born in 1855 and is now a spiritual icon in 2025?

Do I write about Letha Hedgebeth, who in 1874 became the first woman to serve on the church Trustee Board, paving the way for other women like Diane Carver and Sheenata Crudup to serve in that position today in 2025?

Or perhaps I should write about the many families who have entered the sanctuary of this historic church over the decades to hear the Word of God delivered

Families like the Carvers, the Parhams, the Johnsons, the Bakers, the Ollies, the Turners, the Whittens, and many others whose names are known throughout the community and have been linked to Allen Chaple for decades

Maybe I should write about

Pastors like

Rev. D. H. Harris, who pastored the church from 1959 to 1975.

making him the longest and oldest pastor to do so

Or maybe I’ll write about  the late Rev. Dr. Gloria J. Clark, who in 2011 became the first female to head the church in 159 years

Or do I write about Rev. Bobette Hampton, whose spiritual upbringing at Allen Chapel led her to leave Allen Chapel in 2022 and become the first woman to found an A.M.E. Church in Kalamazoo when she founded Fresh Fire A.M.E. Church, formerly located across town at 2505 Gull Road?

Or maybe I’ll write about Rev. Dr. Timothy Ezell, who, as a young man, found his spiritual calling at Allen Chapel and is now the Senior Pastor of Mt. Calvary Christian Bible Church located at 1434 North Westnedge, a position he has held for the past 22 years

And how can I not write about the late Mrs. Anna Whitten, whose name is etched in white letters on a building on the downtown campus of Kalamazoo Valley Community College?      

Anna Whitten Hall is what they call it

But her name is also etched in the membership archives of Allen Chapel for being a member of Allen Chapel for several decades, and one of the church’s favorite Mothers of the Church

Or should I write about Rev. Millard Southern III, who in 2020 became the spiritual leader of this historic church and led the church through the COVID epidemic while having to hold services on the front lawn?

How do I put all this into some type of historical poetic form? 

What words do I use to tell the history and the struggle of a church and its people from 1855 to 2025?

Where do I find the words to tell the history of a church that has been a spiritual force in our community for such a long time?

What do I leave out

What do I keep in

170 years is a long time

A lot of history has been made in 170 years

How do I write a church poem that will tell the history of a church that has meant so much to so many over the decades, and is still fulfilling the spiritual needs of members of the Kalamazoo community in 2025?

Just as Rev. Robinson envisioned it in 1855

How do I write a poem about Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Kalamazoo?

A church whose motto is

God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, The Holy Spirit our Comforter, Humankind our Family

A motto that many of its members have tried to live by

A motto that is inscribed on a plaque that hangs in the church’s Fellowship Hall to remind them 

So many thoughts bouncing around in my head like little children bouncing around in a bounce house

How do I pull all these thoughts together to make sense in a poem?

How do I say what needs to be said in a poetic way?

How do I combine history with poetry?

It’s not easy to write such a poem 

even for an old school poet such as myself

Now, as the morning gives way to midday, my thoughts begin to fade, as my thoughts sometimes do these days,

I’m left with a feeling of doubt

Will I ever be able to write my church poem?

Will I ever be able to write a poem intertwined with history and poetry to tell the history of such a historic church? 

To give the reader a feeling of both history and poetry

So much to say

So much history to share

So much for me to try to write

So, I tell myself

Tomorrow is another day

Tomorrow is another day for me to get up as the darkness of the night is saying goodbye, and the light of a new day is saying hello

Tomorrow is another day for me to pick up my pen

Shake the sleep from my mind and try again

Try once again to write my church poem

Try once again to write a poem about Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan

A church that was spiritually born in 1855

A church that is still spiritually alive in 2025

A church so deeply rooted in history,

a church so deeply rooted in the Kalamazoo community

Yes, tomorrow I will try again

And maybe this time I will be able to write my church poem

Because God is good

Even in 2025

Buddy Hannah may be known to many as the former host of Talk It Up Live, a social commentary radio program that aired on 1560 AM and 95.5 FM The Touch in Kalamazoo from 1995 to his retirement in 2014. Buddy is also a self-published poet. Having published six books of poetry and one book of social commentaries.  His 1989 book of poetry, “Conversations from Elsa’s On The Park,” was used in a Black Studies class at Western Michigan University. Buddy is also a former social commentary columnist for what was once the CityLife Section of the Kalamazoo Gazette. 

In 2019, he served as co-director, along with Sid Ellis, for the Eastside Voices Oral History project, which led to the publication of the book “Eastside Voices.” Buddy has also written several plays. His play “Caught Up in the Circle of Life” had a successful tour throughout the South in 2014. His 2016 play, “Rev. Hype The Stage Play,” was based on a novel by Kalamazoo author Raymond Ryan.

Artist’s Statement, Buddy Hannah: In writing this poem, I wanted to try and tell the history of Allen Chapel A M E Church in some poetic way and give the reader a sense of reading a poem while learning a little bit about the history, the people, and events that have made the church such an iconic symbol in our community.

Maya Sophia Ananda James is a social practice artist, journalist, and advocate. From her early days as a youth correspondent to her recent accolades, including the Vanguard Award in ArtPrize 2023, Maya’s journey is a unique testament to the power of art for social change. As the new Social Practice Correspondent for Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave, she continues to ignite change through storytelling, inspiring others to join her in using art as a platform to achieve a better future.

Artist’s Statement: Heaven in a Church Fan, Maya James:  Heaven in a Church Fan is a visual meditation on the legacy of Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church and the ways its history is carried, remembered, and held within the Black community of Kalamazoo. Created in collaboration with poet Buddy Hanna and inspired by his work My Church Poem, the piece reflects on the challenge: How do you honor 170 years of spiritual life, struggle, and community in a single work of art? 

The handheld fan at the center of the painting becomes both an archival object and a sacred vessel. Historically used by worshippers in Allen Chapel’s earliest wooden sanctuary — cooling themselves in the summer heat — the fan transforms here into a window between eras. Inside its frame, I draw from archival images preserved by the Kalamazoo Public Library to depict the 307 Water Street church and the generations of congregants who gathered there. They stand together in a layered, dreamlike space, their forms merging and shimmering like memory itself. 

Surrounding the fan is a sky of clouds and color — an evocation of heaven not as a distant realm, but as something shaped through communal presence, continuity, and care. In this composition, “heaven” is found in the act of gathering, in the resilience of a congregation, and in the spiritual and cultural grounding that Allen Chapel has provided since 1855. The collaboration with Buddy Hannah deepens this intention. His poem wrestles with how to tell a story so vast—how to honor the pastors, families, matriarchs, founders, and community members who built and sustained the church. My painting answers by holding them all together in reverence. The fan becomes the hand that carries history forward and the angels who watch over our mortal struggle on Earth. “Heaven in a Church Fan” was created to honor Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church as both a spiritual home and a living archive where memory, faith, and community converge, similarly to the church fans that sometimes adorn our walls and altars. It is an offering to the ancestors who cooled themselves with these fans in heaven. It is for those who gather in worship across generations with the enduring belief that heaven can be found wherever people come together in love, testimony, and praise.