Damien Durr

Damien Durr – minister, educator, and teacher, inspires, galvanizes, and promotes hope across the county from churches to barber shops to public schools.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he attended American Baptist College (B.A.) and Vanderbilt University (M.Div.). As Presidential Scholar at ABC and Kelly Miller Smith Fellow at Vanderbilt, he helped facilitate various initiatives and discussions involving childhood education, juvenile justice, the prison industrial complex, Black Church Studies, and cultural criticism. An extension of his undergraduate and graduate work has been incorporated through programs and published works via: Haynes Middle School Mentoring Program, the Bishop Michael Lee Graves Leadership Academy,and Abington Press. He has also co-produced numerous documentaries addressing topics addressing the role of the church and intellectual in the Black community.

As a preacher, presenter, and lecturer, he has shared in different academic and ecclesial settings, as well as in the Juvenile Justice Center and Riverbend Maximum Security Prison with wide-ranging messages including:
The Church at a Crossword between Despair, Desire, and Deliverance: Intergenerational Ministry in the 21stCentury Black Church;Life and Times of JC:(Jesus Christ); Chronicles of a God Chaser; Finding God in an Unexpected Place; Confessions of a Slumdog Messiah; The Messages, Images, and Influences of Hip Hop on the Black Experience in America; Am I A Problem: Racial Profiling, Vigilante-ism and Social Transformation.

He currently serves as the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at the Temple Church and a Consultant for the Children’s Defense Fund Nashville Team and President and CEO of DCD Empowerment.