[Fedora]

On June 2, 2020, Black Lives Matter’s Los Angeles Chapter sponsored an action in front of Mayor Eric Garcetti’s house, demanding reductions in the city’s funding of police. The action, what many would call a protest, began like a religious ceremony. Melina Abdullah, chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, and co-founder of BLM-LA, opened the event explaining that while the movement is a social justice movement, it is first and foremost a spiritual movement. She led the group in a ritual: the reciting of names of those taken by state violence before their time—ancestors now being called back to animate their own justice: "George Floyd. Asé. Philandro Castille. Asé. Andrew Joseph. Asé. Michael Brown. Asé. Erika Garner. Asé. Harriet Tubman. Asé. Malcom X. Asé. Martin Luther King. Asé." As each name is recited, Dr. Abdullah poured libations on the ground as the group of over 100 chanted “Asé,” a Yoruba term often used by practitioners of Ifa, a faith and divination system that originated in West Africa, in return. This ritual, Dr. Abdullah explained, is a form of worship. The Fight for Black Lives is a Spiritual Movement

[Fedora]

This article has a link to the original live virtual performance being quoted, and adds details which sound like Cullors was trying to put a curse on the police and "white racism", which is equated with "neo-Nazis" later in the article: A recorded prayer for Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd played on repeat as Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors shredded sheets of paper with the words “police” and “white racism.” In the background, a pair of wings hung against a wall as candles lit up the room. Cullors stood in the middle of the wings, shredding. This was part of a live virtual performance, “A Prayer for the Runner,” that the Fowler Museum at UCLA hosted on Saturday (June 13). . .Abdullah and Cullors touched on the practice of calling out the names of the victims that they advocate for in protests and demonstrations. It's kind of a way to invoke their spirits, Abdullah said. . .Cullors, who grew up Jehovah's Witness, said she "was always someone who almost obsessed about our (Black) ancestors.". . ."I wasn’t raised with honoring ancestors. ... As I got older and started to feel like I was missing something, ancestral worship became really important," she said. The women also touched on their tradition of praying and pouring libations during demonstrations. . .Cullors said it became clear to her they needed "spiritual protection" as Black Lives Matter was targeted by the right, by police and by neo-Nazis. . .: Black Lives Matter is ‘a spiritual movement,’ says co-founder Patrisse Cullors