Weaving New Worlds

APRIL 28, 2026

Re-Storying Institute: Weaving New Worlds

At McCormick Theological Seminary, the Sacred Memory Project is grounded in a simple but transformative conviction: the stories we inherit — and the ones we choose to tell — shape the worlds we build. Nowhere is this more urgent than in the ongoing work of re-storying HIV/AIDS. For too long, dominant narratives have been marked by stigma, silence, and erasure. Sacred Memory exists to interrupt that pattern — centering dignity, honoring lived experience, and cultivating practices of healing that move communities toward wholeness.

The 2026 Re-Storying Institute: Weaving New Worlds (June 25–27 in Winston-Salem, NC) is a natural extension of that mission. As a collaborative offering from McCormick’s Sacred Memory Project and Faith Compass Center at Wake Forest University School of Divinity with the 1Love Festival, the Institute gathers leaders, practitioners, and community members into a shared space of imagination and action. Through guided conversations, collaborative learning, and embodied practice, participants are invited to rethink scarcity, power, and value — shifting from competition and isolation toward care, reciprocity, and collective thriving. This is not abstract work. It is deeply practical, equipping participants with tools and relationships they can carry back into their own contexts.

A driving force in this movement is our own Dr. Itihare Touré, whose leadership bridges the Sacred Memory Project and the Re-Storying Institute. Dr. Touré brings a rare combination of theological depth, cultural insight, and community-grounded practice — guiding this work with both clarity and care. Her leadership insists that re-storying is not simply about changing language; it is about transforming systems, restoring relationships, and creating new pathways for communal flourishing. Through her work, Sacred Memory becomes more than a project, it becomes a living practice of truth-telling, repair, and possibility.

The Institute embodies what Sacred Memory has been building at McCormick: spaces where stories are not extracted, but honored; where those most impacted are not sidelined, but centered; and where healing is not individualistic, but collective. In this way, Weaving New Worlds is both a gathering and a continuation—a moment in a larger movement to reimagine how we live, lead, and care for one another.

This is the work of re-storying. This is the work of Sacred Memory.

Join us June 25–27 and be part of building what comes next.