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Meet Dr. Baranda Fermin of Sunday Spread in South Dallas

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Baranda Fermin.

Dr. Fermin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a helper and a builder. When I hear people talk about ideas or dreams, my brain automatically starts to create plans and lists. I can see other people’s dreams so clearly. Sometimes seeing a path more clearly than they can at the moment. Initially, that emerged professionally, though a career as an educator that spanned more than 15 years. During that time, a ton of my work was also working with local communities the students attending the colleges and universities I taught at lived within. Most of the places I taught at had large populations of working-class and first-generation college students attending. Hearing their dreams for themselves and their communities was a huge aspect of my work. It kept me from burning out.

Creatively, it was my jam, listening to people’s dreams, connecting to the mission and vision of an organization, and then creating clear recipes for capacity building and strategic development was my sweet spot. Spending time with some of the most innovative and impactful leaders in the city and seeing their dream, or their next dream come true was amazingly fulfilling. When I started building Sunday Spread two years ago, I didn’t realize I was building my own dream until about a year into everything. I have spent so much time listening to change-agents, leaders, and innovators in the city that initially it seemed like I was just doing something that they’d love to do if they had time.

As an entrepreneur every person I spoke with throughout my day, each day, talked about combating burnout, nurturing trust, remaining in relationship with folks that wanted the same things but saw the world so differently than them. When I was working in education, I’d advise a student on a plan for the semester or their career path, and then rarely hear from them again. Hundreds of students each term, during such a short and busy season of their lives, it’d often be years before they found me again. Whereas, after I’d talk with organizational leaders and create strategic plans or systems for them they’d call me back, not only to thank me but to also talk through navigating the potential landmines of fast growth and building trust. I’d connect folks across industries and other social divides that were intended to help them grow, but were so isolating in the fast-paced work of social justice, enterprising change, and entrepreneurship.

I’ve encountered so many boxes in life and so have so many other folks, folks that start things like entrepreneurs, and folks that want to make the world better feel those boxes so acutely in their everyday life. As an army brat, I was accustomed to having folks want to put me in so many boxes so they could understand how to connect with me and those boxes seeming to change so often. Moving between worlds and others’ understandings of me is a superpower of mine that many folks don’t experience until they try to do something new. Also, my dad has been an entrepreneur for much of my life. So, helping and partnering with change-agents and entrepreneurs is a sweet-spot that comes naturally for me. No matter our industries or gifts we all feel a deep urge, calling if you will, that God has put within each of us a vision for how Dallas can be greater, more inclusive, more equitable, more just. Many of us believe we can’t do that without God, and for better or worse we know we can’t do it without each other. God is ever-present and continuously inviting us to the table together. Plus, being Afro-Latina and southern, there’s usually food on the table. So being at the table, whether for business or hard conversations is something that can be enjoyable or at least more bearable with food. In Dallas, that’s Brunch. Brunch is what we do, tired, excited, burnt out, renewed, hungover, or well-rested we are excited to meet each other around the table for brunch. So, that’s what we do on Sunday Spread. Each week because we know the work of changing Dallas for the better feels a bit easier when we have food, coffee, and mimosas as a part of the equation.

I believe it’s hard work to protect what’s good about Dallas and change what doesn’t truly reflect the Divine spark in each of us within our city, our churches, our neighborhoods, our relationships, and ourselves. I believe that Jesus would want us to do this work together. So that’s why I launched Sunday Spread. That’s why we come together and share this amazing conversation, coffee, and food. To support what is at the core of our community and find ways to move forward together as our logo the Siamese Crocodile displays.

Has it been a smooth road?
I mean, I was newly divorced, 38 with a 2-year-old, in a city that wasn’t my home town when I decided to do something new, public and completely different than I’d ever done before. I’d done very well for myself and had managed to hold on to so much through two divorces, pregnancy, and becoming a parent even as an entrepreneur. I risked, lost, and rebuilt nearly EVERYTHING. By no means has the road been smooth. I don’t think that’s the intention of roads or journeys. They take you places, and if you want to explore, go places, have adventures you take the bumps, obstacles, and challenges as par for the course. Although, from time to time, I do wonder if things have to be as hard or complicated as they seem to be. I tend to not take the easy road, although I’m learning to choose it more often for both sanity and joy’s sake. That’s one of my struggles, I am extremely goal orientated. I can get so focused on where I am going or what I am doing that if an easier pathway emerges along the way I don’t always see it. Learning to glance up from the weeds when I’m stuck in the details, and also learning to ask more questions about the details when I’m surveying the bird’s eye view has been an extremely helpful lesson. Going back and forth between those perspectives has been a HUGE lesson for me.

Transitioning from an entrepreneurial space that was by nature collaborative, as a contractor working in community development, into a space that was still entrepreneurial but seemingly less collaborative was so difficult for me. It was a struggle as a solopreneur trying to communicate a vision to folks to get them excited and engaged. Though I had tons of structural support and folks that were excited, getting folks to latch on to the vision and get engaged was a challenge. It’s a classic challenge for entrepreneurs and change-agents. It is the quintessential leadership challenge. I’d walked with so many through this very challenge in my previous work but I needed someone to walk with me. I couldn’t do it all, and initially, my budget couldn’t afford to hire my former self. Once again, the classic start-up issue, right? But now I was on the other side. Though I was familiar with it, the struggle of keeping SundaySpread viable and relevant long enough to be able to attract and afford the help I needed was one of the darkest periods of my life. Now, I’m on the other side for, climbing a different mountain, and I’m grateful.

We’d love to hear more about Sunday Spread.
Sunday Spread began to take root in the summer of 2016 as both Dallas, as a city, and our partner Union Coffee as a coffee shop was in uncomfortable transition something was brewing. Union’s founding community curator, Mike Baughman saw that God was up to something at that moment, and though it didn’t feel good, it could be good. As the founding community curator of Sunday Spread, I have loved watching Union’s mission and theory of change develop since it opened its doors in 2012 and was thrilled to accept Mike’s invitation to participate in several group discussions with other Union lovers and members over breakfast tacos about what was next. With the support from the North Texas United Methodist Church Conference’s Center for Church Development, the planning team officially began the design of what was initially known as Brunch Church in July of 2018. Sunday Spread, still affectionately known as #BrunchChurch, launched its test gatherings in the fall of 2018, and was officially recognized by the conference and its New Faces, New Spaces initiative in the spring of 2019. We officially office out of GoodWork in South Dallas, and are in plans to open our own space in late 2020.

Our coffee business will use the foundational model of Union. When you buy coffee at Union, 10% of your sale goes to a local non-profit organization.Every four months, Union selects a new organization to donate to. To date, Union has supported eight non-profits and has raised thousands of dollars while impacting thousands of lives by supporting the North Texas Food Bank, Project Transformation, Capes 4 Kids, Cafe Momentum, North Texas Tornado Relied, and United Methodist Disaster Relief. But a coffee shop isn’t just a church because of the good that its customers are able to do with its coffee. Union is a church because we believe in the omnipresence of God and the sanctifying grace that presence provides us all, even when we’re buying a cup of coffee, or a scone, or as we’ve found over the past year, enjoying cinnamon rolls, smoked salmon and a mimosa at brunch.

As a worship community, Sunday Spread is centered around brunch and poetry for boundary pushers and change-makers in the city of Dallas. We gather every Sunday afternoon at 1:30 PM for community, connection, and discussion; and, on the first Sunday of every month, we gather for music, worship, and BRUNCH of course! We also host writing workshops and open mics, support groups for black and brown mental health professionals, storytelling nights and read-aloud honoring black and brown literary and musical legends.

For many, Sunday Spread is their primary worship experience; for others, it’s an addition to their spiritual rhythm, a space they go to for refreshing and connecting with like-spirited folks since they’re often the ones pushing the boundaries of inclusivity and diversity in their regular worshipping communities. We believe it’s hard work to protect what’s good about Dallas and change what doesn’t truly reflect the Divine spark in each of us within our city, our churches, our neighborhoods, our relationships, and ourselves. We believe that the redeemer, Jesus Christ, would want us to do this work together and that God is present everywhere and in everyone. If we find reasons to spend time together, and there are plenty we’ll see and remember this more often.

So, that’s why we meet. That’s why Sunday Spread exists. That’s why we come together and share an amazing brunch spread and outstanding coffee. To support what is at the core of our community and find ways to move forward together as our logo the West African adinkra of the Siamese Crocodile displays. Crocodiles looking in different directions, yet connected and sharing what feeds their being. What has emerged in the past few years as unique to Sunday Spread for Dallas’s inclusive brunch church where we believe that change-making should light us up, not burn us out, and community can lighten our burden, not wear us down and we live into that.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Dallas is an amazing place for businesses like mine social enterprises seeking transformative and JUST impact for communities. I’d recommend anyone looking to start and contribute to change to start here. There’s plenty of work, and there’s nothing in our city that needs to be improved that won’t improve with more folks at the table and voices in the fray that have legitimate skin in the game.

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Image Credit:
J. Wiggins of Concepts Productions (photo with red CP logo in the corner)

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