Podcasts about black liturgies

On this episode of the podcast, I look back and reflect on some of my favorite Letters & Layers episodes of the year so far. Towards the end of the episode I share a prayer from Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley written specifically for Black women (19:16) . I hope you listen to the end.I'm going on break! This will be the last episode until we return for the fall season on August 1st.I started a blog! Visit (www.thelettersandlayers.com) and subscribe to the newsletter at the bottom of the homepage. I'd love to offer answers to your questions, real-time life updates and recommendations, and mental health/wellness insight and resources.As always, please share and recommend, and thank you so much for the support!EMAIL: contact@thelettersandlayers.comNew podcast Instagram! @thelettersandlayerspod. Give us a follow!I appreciate you!

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Angela Pennyfeather, Founder of the Brooklyn Natural Hair Fest, to explore her mission to bridge the gap between beauty brands and consumers through education, culture, and community-centered events. Angela shares the inspiration behind the festival, how it evolved from a small grassroots gathering to a widely respected celebration of natural hair, and why creating safe, joyful spaces for Black beauty and self-expression is part of the legacy she's building.We dive into:The importance of educational experiences in the beauty spaceHow natural hair is tied to identity, confidence, and healingThe role of community and consistency in building long-term impactHow beauty entrepreneurs and creatives can partner with purposeAngela also highlights the value of bringing brands directly to the community, not just to sell—but to teach, connect, and uplift. Her work is a reminder that the natural hair movement isn't just about aesthetics—it's a form of empowerment.Book Recommendation: Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur RileyAngela leaves us with a powerful read: Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley.This soulful book is a spiritual balm—combining meditations, prayers, and reflections rooted in Black emotion, identity, and liberation. It invites readers to slow down and engage in intentional rest, healing, and inner work. A must-read for anyone looking to connect their inner journey with their outer purpose.For more on Angela be sure to follow her on IG at Bknaturalhairfest and Angela Pennyfeather

In this episode of Finding OK, Hecate returns after a year-long hiatus to provide an update on the podcast and share personal insights on intersectionality, kyriarchy, and the importance of understanding systemic oppression as part of healing from sexual assault and abuse. Hecate discusses the interconnectedness of personal trauma and broader social injustices, and emphasizes the need for community and collective action against systems of oppression. The episode encourages listeners to engage with their communities, leverage their unique gifts for activism, and maintain hope and resilience in tough times.Tw/Cw: Suicide, depression, PTSD, the subject of sexual assault and abuse, fascism, and genocide.00:00 Introduction and Personal Reflection00:56 Podcast Update and Mental Health Struggles05:13 Intersectionality and Systems of Oppression14:49 The Personal is Political29:30 Call to Action and Community Building35:03 Finding Connection and Staying Grounded36:24 The Power of Authenticity38:51 Building Community Through Twitch42:36 Facing Fascism and Finding Resources49:02 Supporting Palestine and Fundraising Efforts52:14 Mental Health and Activism56:39 The River Metaphor: Different Ways to Help01:02:26 Final Thoughts and EncouragementLinks: Podcast Website: https://www.finding-ok.com/ Hecate's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/FindingOK Join Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/HecateFindingOK Hecate's PCRF Fundraiser: https://donate.tiltify.com/4125341b-4f0d-43e0-b017-0019a82b8dde/details Decolonizing Therapy: https://www.decolonizingtherapy.com/ Black Liturgies on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/blackliturgies/?hl=en DevthePineapple on Insta: https://www.instagram.com/devthepineapple/?hl=en Check out Signal for a secure messaging app that won't sell you or your comrades out to the cops: https://signal.org/ YK Hong (An activist to follow everywhere): https://ykhong.com/ Free Zine about fighting Fascism: https://itsgoingdown.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/DontJustDoNothing_CounterFascism_IMPOSED.pdf Free Zine about resisting Oligarchy: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFgWbIVPfk1/?img_index=1 Printable Brochure Version: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGdx0uhGuQ/r7PQuF6JlQG6GnzT7iwbRw/edit?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaby7YCPCiYHjNnaDNuFa8b5MwzlqI2OAIrnKGUYE9sK9ML9SVSSRkvV8mk_aem_RuQok6tkGVOdY_XtOOQgSwSupport the show

In this beautiful conversation–in which Glennon names Cole's book “This Here Flesh” the Next Right Book–we discuss:  1. What we learned from Cole's insight that, “If you're not in your body, someone else is.”  2. A mind-blowing revelation about all of our own faces that we will never stop thinking about.  3. Why the phrase “If you don't believe you're beautiful, no one else will” is horseshit.   4. Why dignity is the bedrock to being alive–and how to find it when we haven't been loved well.  5. The connection between fear and awe–and how to practice wonder as a cure for despair.  About Cole:  Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body.  TW: @blackliturgist IG: @colearthurriley @blackliturgies To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Becoming Witchy, we're diving into supportive practices to help navigate these stressful times. I share a personal list of ways I've been coping, staying grounded, and continuing to find magic, even during challenging times. Alongside this, I share a list of resources to offer guidance, comfort, and direction when things feel tumultuous. Whether you're seeking small acts of self-care, spiritual practices, or practical tools, this episode is here to support you.Black LiturgiesThis Here Flesh and Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 potions, spells, and magical elixirs to embolden the resistance by Ariel GoreThe Altar Within : a radical devotional to liberate the divine self by Juliet Diaz  Revolutionary Witchcraft: a guide to magical activism my Sarah Lyons Witches, Midwives and Nurses: a history of women healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English ACLUKeep in touch and up to date by following Bramble & Brimstone on ⁠instagram⁠, visit our ⁠website⁠ or ⁠shop⁠, where you can sign up for our newsletter for monthly rituals, shop our wares, and get more Becoming Witchy content!  Sign up to our Newsletter for monthly rituals and a discount code for our shop!

In this episode, Cole Arthur Riley joins us to explore Black Liturgies and their role in faith, culture, and spiritual practice.   Watch the Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/Sam036qdeRo    Subscribe to the Ecosystem Here: https://www.patreon.com/tfcvirtual   -----------------------------------------------------------------------   If you want to grab Breaking All The Rules as a physical copy, e-book or audiobook visit holysmokesmovement.com and click "Purchase Breaking All The Rules" under "Shop"   If you want to partner with us in our Patreon Community and get more content, access and community, visit holysmokesmovement.com and click "Join Our Patreon Community".   -----------------------------------------------------------------------   You can find everything you need at https://www.holysmokesmovement.com/   Order Breaking All The Rules: https://www.holysmokesmovement.com/batr-book-order   Listen on your favorite podcast platform.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Faith Community is a disruptive ministry built upon five keys: Greatest Commandment Theology, Anti-Racism, Women's Equity, LGBTQ+ Affirmation, and Bible Criticism. We are for the unchurched, the over-churched, and the under-churched; the weary and the wounded; the seeking and the cynical.  

Black Liturgies with Cole Arthur Riley by Oasis Church Waterloo

Join Cole Arthur Riley in conversation with Divya Rosaline David to discuss “Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human.” For years, Cole Arthur Riley was desperate for a spirituality she could trust. Amid ongoing national racial violence, the isolation of the pandemic, and a surge of anti-Black rhetoric in many Christian spaces, she began dreaming of a more human, more liberating expression of faith. She went on to create Black Liturgies, a digital project that connects spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body. In this book, she brings together hundreds of new prayers, along with letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scriptures, and the writings of Black literary ancestors to offer forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or as a community. Inviting readers to reflect on their shared experiences of wonder, rest, rage, and repair, and creating rituals for holidays like Lent and Juneteenth, Arthur Riley writes with a poet's touch and a sensitivity that has made her one of the most important spiritual voices at work today. For anyone healing from communities that were more violent than loving; for anyone who has escaped the trauma of white Christian nationalism, religious homophobia, or transphobia; for anyone asking what it means to be human in a world of both beauty and terror, Black Liturgies is a work of healing and empowerment, and a vision for might be. About the author: Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the NYT bestselling author of This Here Flesh and Black Liturgies. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator. To help sustain our work, you can donate here To check out what RLC is up to, please visit us www.redletterchristians.org  Follow us on Twitter: @RedLetterXians Instagram: @RedLetterXians Follow Shane on Instagram: @shane.claiborne Twitter: @ShaneClaiborne Intro song by Common Hymnal: https://commonhymnal.com/ 

This week, we are joined by Author Cole Arthur Riley to discuss her journey with writing her NYT Bestseller Black Liturgies. Get your Smart Funny & Black merch here!  For more content, subscribe to our Youtube and Patreon!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we are joined by Author Cole Arthur Riley to discuss her journey with writing her NYT Bestseller Black Liturgies. Get your Smart Funny & Black merch here!  For more content, subscribe to our Youtube and Patreon!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Robert reads a prayer from Cole Arthur Riley's new book Black Liturgies. To get some of the books that we mention on the podcast, please check out our growing collection here: https://bookshop.org/lists/black-and-alive-a-black-coffee-theology-reading-list? https://bookshop.org/lists/black-and-alive-a-black-coffee-theology-reading-list? Please check her substack out at https://agentlelanding.substack.com/ If you're a fan of the show, please like, subscribe, and leave a positive review on your podcast app.  You can also support me financially on Patreon at: patreon.com/threeblackmen Finally, you can check out my writing at: https://musingsfromabrokenheart.substack.com

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body. Her spirituality in this season is comprised of more questions than answers and grounded in myth, storytelling, interior examen, and embodiment. She is currently interested in questions concerning collective and inherited memory and has been formed by thinkers such as Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Octavia Butler, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis uses her gifts as an author, activist, preacher, and public theologian to create an antiracist, just, gun violence-free, fully welcoming, gender-affirming society in which everyone has enough. The author of several books and articles, Lewis's most recent book, Fierce Love, was published in 2021. Her Just Love Story Bible will be released in 2025. Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body.

This episode is all about death - our mortality as human beings and the small deaths we experience of our hopes and expectations. It is not a cheery one, but an honest reflection on coming to terms with the end of things, in this season of Lent. We end with help from Cole Arthur Riley's new book Black Liturgies. (Trigger Warning: grief and loss, suicide and euthanasia)

Poet and author Cole Arthur Riley joins us to talk about her desire for a spirituality that was more human and a more liberating expression of faith. This journey led to the emergence of Black Liturgies. From prayers and poetry to breath practices and ancestral writings, this digital project explores spirituality that embraces embodiment, lament, rage and rest. And draws deeply from both contemplation and activism. Interview starts at 13m 53s Show Notes → We'd be very grateful if you could consider supporting our fundraiser for new audio gear and our therapy network. You can make a contribution at our gofundme page. Thanks! 

In this episode, meet writer and poet Cole Arthur Riley, senior rabbi of IKAR Sharon Brous, and psychologist and professor Dr. Mariel Buqué. Press play to hear how these authors describe their recording processes, and how they felt hearing their words aloud. Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/721989/black-liturgies-by-cole-arthur-riley/audio The Amen Effect by Sharon Brous: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720048/the-amen-effect-by-sharon-brous/audio Break the Cycle by Dr. Mariel Buqué: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/714176/break-the-cycle-by-dr-mariel-buque/audio

Happy New Year! This week on From the Front Porch, it's another New Release Rundown! Annie, Olivia, and Erin are sharing the October releases they're excited about to help you build your TBR. What better way to start the year than with new books? When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order! To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 458” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode) or or download and shop on The Bookshelf's official app: Annie's books: Mercury by Amy Jo Burns (out now) Anna O by Matthew Blake (out now) Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley (releases 1/16) Olivia's books: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (releases 1/30) The Fury by Alex Michaelides (releases 1/16) Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook (releases 1/16) Erin's books Invisible Woman by Katia Lief (releases 1/9) The Ladies Rewrite the Rules by Suzanne Allain (releases 1/9) Old Crimes by Jill McCorkle (releases 1/9) From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here.  Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Among the Bros by Max Marshall. Olivia is reading The Five Impossible Tasks of Eden Smith by Tom Llewellyn. Erin is reading Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.

My heart was deeply moved by this quiet, heartful conversation with Cole Arthur Riley, creator and curator of Black Liturgies (a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation), and author of the books This Here Flesh and the upcoming Black Liturgies:  Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human. Cole shares her soulful work daily on Instagram. In our conversation we share about our kindred childhood experiences with silence, solitude, and finding our written and spoken voices. Together, we find commonality in the spiritual nature of our work and the use of language in soul service, and in how self-examination becomes more critical for us as we address systemic violence, oppression, and atrocities in the world. We also discuss the medicinal utility of addressing the root of human suffering, violence, and supremacy, rather than emphasizing surface-level social group categorizations.  Our conversation is at once very personal and very timely as we face and address the continuing reality of human crisis and faith as our way home.Sacred Conversations are periodic episodes of my podcast in which I reach out to people whose work and life inspire me, and we simply have an old fashioned phone conversation. No video. No scripted, transactional, extractive, one-sided interview dynamic. Just two people with a care and curiosity for each other's journey, asking each other soulful questions, and enjoying the ancient, mutually healing art of listening deeply. Again, not an interview. A spiritual communion. The idea is for us to relax and enjoy an organic conversation, like over tea or breaking bread, and get to know each other along the way. My books are available at jaiyajohn.com (thank you for purchasing directly from the author) and at booksellers worldwide. Audiobooks, eBooks, book specials, sleep stories, audio talks, apparel, and piano music are exclusively at my website. Thank you for posting your copies of my books on Instagram, tagging #jaiyajohn, encouraging others to purchase, posting readings of your favorite passages, and sharing online book reviews. My whole heart cries Grateful. jaiyajohn.com...    Support the show

Jeremiah pens some of the most beautiful words of hope to his community. But those hope-filled words are smack in the middle of horrors. Pan back even just a few verses, and one can see that Jeremiah is writing from prison, where his people are under siege by the Babylonian Empire, their towns and cities are ravaged, homes and even palaces are in rubble, and the streets are filled with corpses. sigh. What does hope even mean in the context of such devastation and sorrow in Jeremiah's world and in ours? If hope is as puny as mere optimism, it might not mean much. But hope is a fierce practice that only makes sense in the face of the hopeless. As we engage both the expectant Advent of our communal church life, and the joyous cultural festival of Christmas in the wider community, how might we stoke and nurture our practice of hope in a broken and beautiful world?Sermon begins at minute marker 5:00Jeremiah 33.10-18ResourcesBibleWorm podcast: Episode 513 – Hope Against Hope, Amy Robertson and Robert Williamson, Jr.“Why Christmas Is Canceled In Bethlehem,” analysis by Ishaan Tharoor, The Washington Post, November 29, 2023.Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies. “Advent, a season where we make space for grief, longing, sacred darkness, and silence…” Inhale: The world feels dim. Exhale: But we dream in the dark.Jan Richardson, “That Wild Advent Hope,” sent by email November 30, 2023.Image: First Sunday of Advent at SMC 2023, photo by Pastor MeganHymn: VT 236, Creator of the Stars of Night. Words: Conditor alme siderum, 9th c.; trans. John Mason Neale (England), 1851, rev. The Hymnal, 1940, alt., © 1985 Church Pension Fund. Music: Sarum plainsong (England), ca. 9th c. Permission to podcast the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-726929. All rights reserved.

The podcast is back for the season of Advent! Historically, the church has recognized four themes through the four weeks of Advent, and we begin with the theme for week one: Hope. I speak with Cole Arthur Riley, author and creator of Black Liturgies, about the role memory, discipline, and awe have to play in our formation of hope.

Abi and Rich get together to discuss deep interviews with artist Barbara Keal and liturgist and author Cole Arthur Riley. They delve into embodied and contemplative activism and creative responses to injustice and trauma.We hear all about the Coat of Hopes - there is a 10 minute video here telling you more about the project.Cole Arthur Riley also shares about her book This Here Flesh and her digital project Black Liturgies.Other helpful resources: Nine Fold Path - a resource to help you work through Jesus' Beatitudes.Our episode on Peacemakers seems particularly apt at the moment.

This episode takes place live at the Greenbelt Festival, and in it Elizabeth Oldfield speaks to writer, Cole Arthur Riley. Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and the creator of the very successful social media account, Black Liturgies - "a space where Black words of dignity, lament, rage, and rest, are curated and integrated with a liberating spirituality". She is also the author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Cole spoke about her childhood and growing up being raised by a young dad, the power of sharing stories, and how she has learned to express rage through her writing. You can follow Black Liturgies on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/blackliturgies/ Read the full transcript here: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/2023/09/20/cole-arthur-riley-on-storytelling-and-learning-to-express-anger ***** The Sacred is a podcast produced by the think tank Theos. Be sure to connect with us below to stay up-to-date with all our content, research and events. CONNECT WITH THE SACRED Twitter: https://twitter.com/sacred_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacred_podcast/ CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH OLDFIELD Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESOldfield Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethsaraholdfield/ Substack: https://morefullyalive.substack.com/ CONNECT WITH THEOS Theos monthly newsletter: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/d/E9E17CAB71AC7464 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Theosthinktank Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theosthinktank LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theos---the-think-tank/ Website: https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/ CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS The Sacred: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sacred/id1326888108 Reading Our Times: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reading-our-times/id1530952185

We are honored to offer a special encore guest meditation by writer and poet Cole Arthur Riley. Cole is the New York Times best selling author of “This Here Flesh - Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us.” In today's podcast episode, Cole shares a meditative reading from the chapter of her book on Rest. We invite you to enter into a place of centering stillness, becoming aware of the Divine within. Feel the wind of the Spirit blowing, as you settle in and listen to this beautiful meditation by Cole Arthur Riley. And be sure to check out my in-depth conversation with Cole, as part of our Conversation on Stillness Series. (Episode dated May 12, 2022) Cole serves as the spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University's Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator. For more on Cole and her work, visit www.colearthurriley.com @colearthurriley and @blackliturgies

But did the era of heroin chic ever really end?Low rise jeans are trying to make a comeback — does that mean the bodies that look good in them must too? (Aka: teensy tiny itty bitty very flat stomach bodies.)On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy explore how the body ideals promoted during our teen years are still informing the way we see our adult bodies. We look at how some things have changed — because there has been some progress! — and how others have stayed frustratingly toxic. Plus, we're joined by Cole Arthur Riley for a lovely conversation on how attending to our flesh and blood bodies can help us heal inside and out.GUEST:Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet and the creator of the Black Liturgies project. She is also the author of the NY Times bestseller "This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us." See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To kick off season four of the Sound of the Genuine, Dr. Patrick B. Reyes has a conversation with Cole Arthur Riley. She talks about being a shy, often non-verbal child and how her love of words, nurtured by her family, helped her express herself as a writer at a very young age.Cole currently serves as the spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University's Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion. Her debut book, This Here Flesh is a New York Times bestseller and available wherever books are sold. Portrait Illustration by: Jeanne LolnessMusic by: @siryalibeatsRate, review, and subscribe to Sound of the Genuine on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Cole Arthur Riley grew up in a house full of loud, funny, and loving personalities, but as a kid, she kept her voice from others, barely speaking at all until she was 7 years old. Still, her dad kept finding ways to, as she described, bribe her to share her voice and nurture her creative impulse, often in writing, from poems to stories and beyond. Over time, as her expressive and creative voice took shape, her lens on spirituality also yearned for a more expansive expression, she began to bring all parts of her life together - the creative impulse, life experience, sense of identity and fairness and spiritual inclination - to write her own blended prayer-meets-poetry, modern liturgies. Then, she started sharing them on Instagram under the moniker, Black Liturgies. Almost immediately, the project took off, growing into a global phenomenon. Her work then led to Cole's debut book and New York Times bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us, which explores some of the most urgent questions of life, identity, and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this stunning work, Cole invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it. And we talk about all of it in today's conversation. Her journey, her wisdom, the incredible response of the community, and more.You can find Cole at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode you'll also love the conversations we had with Alex Elle about how to heal.Check out our offerings & partners: My New Book SparkedMy New Podcast SPARKED: We're looking for special guest “wisdom-seekers” to share the moment you're in, then pose questions to Jonathan and the Sparked Braintrust to be answered, “on air.” To submit your “moment & question” for consideration to be on the show go to sparketype.com/submit. Visit Our Sponsor Page For Great Resources & Discount Codes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The way we narrate our past shapes our present and our future, but sometimes our memories are reduced by the generality of the stories we tell- stories shaped by our fears and our wounds and not faithful to the embodied particularity of our lived experience. Too often our spirituality has been dismissive of the body and our religion has conformed to dominant narratives of power that whitewash pain and injustice, leading away from life and freedom. We experience and remember the particularity of both pain and joy in our bodies, however, making a spirituality at home in the body vital if we are to recall the sacred dignity of our humanity and open ourselves to the Spirit's slow work of healing and liberation. Cole Arthur Riley, creator of Black Liturgies and author of This Here Flesh: Spirituality, liberation and the stories that make us, joins Dom and Sue to talk about the power of an embodied spirituality and the dignity of the stories that make us. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Madang Podcast. Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renown authors, leaders, public figures and scholars on religion, culture and everything in-between. This has been a dream of mine for many years and now it is. reality. Please join me at Madang. This is the 24th episode of Madang where I converse with Cole Arthur Riley on her book, This Here Flesh Cole Arthur Riley who is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest. Cole was Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh..She is the author of the The NEW YORK TIMES bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation and the Stories That Make Us (New York: Convergent 2022). So thankful to have Cole Arthur Riley to discuss her book, This Here Flesh Conversations about spirituality, Black Liturgies, white male God, liberation theology, belonging, community and so much more. I am thrilled to announce that Madang podcast is hosted by the Christian Century. Please visit their website for the latest Madang podcast as well as current articles on Christianity, culture and society. I have written several pieces for the Christian Century and welcome this new partnership. https://www.christiancentury.org/madang You can also listen to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0fSZ8jVidQtZTJLqRQk59X and Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/madang/id1556774235 I am grateful to Homebrewed Christianity, Yuzu No Hana for their sponsorship of this episode. Please check out their website for their work, degrees, events, programs and to donate. Please reach out to me if you would like to sponsor the next episode of Madang podcast. Or simply support me here: https://anchor.fm/grace-ji-sun-kim --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/grace-ji-sun-kim/support

Description: Comfort. Peace. Joy. What word would describe this holiday season for you? Latasha Morrison brings together Michele Evans, Micah Smith, and Lauren Brown of the Be the Bridge executive leadership team to share some of their favorite Christmas traditions, memories, and meals. From the tender memories to the funny ones, and the decorations to the gifts, this episode is one full of Christmas cheer and heartfelt thoughts. May we acknowledge the tensions this season holds while embracing the grief and the celebrations. May we join together in laughter and in tears. And may we open our tables whether they hold Coca-Cola salad, cookies, or Breakfast burritos. Quotes: “Advent is a time that we remember who we serve. I know without Christ I could not do the work that I'm doing.” -Latasha Morrison “There's just something about Christmas when everything just kind of slows down a little bit.” -Micah Smith “There's some beauty in this season in the midst of a lot of brokenness.” -Latasha Morrison Links: Resources Mentioned: She Reads Truth - Advent 2022: Joy of Every Longing Heart Truth's Table - The King is Coming: An Advent Devotional Other Advent Resources: “Advent Devotionals Highlight Immigration and the Black Church Tradition” article on Faithfully Magazine Mary Had a Baby: An Advent Bible Study Based on African American Spirituals by Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan “2020 ADVENT RESOURCES, WEEK 2: BLACK LITURGIES” article on Emerging Scholars Network Connect with Be the Bridge: Our Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Connect with Latasha Morrison: Facebook Instagram Twitter Host & Executive Producer - Latasha Morrison Senior Producer - Lauren C. Brown Producer, Editor, & Music - Travon Potts Transcriber - Sarah Connatser Not all views expressed in this interview reflect the values and beliefs of Latasha Morrison or the Be the Bridge organization. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Cole Arthur Riley, the creator of Black Liturgies, talks to us about the importance of implementing dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation in our faith practice.

Christine Valters Paintner is joined by author Claudia Love Mair for a series of video conversations. Each month they take up a new book by or about a voice of color. The community is invited to purchase and read the books in advance and participate actively in this journey of deepening, discovery, and transformation. This month Christine and Claudia Love are joined by Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation. “From the womb, we must repeat with regularity that to love ourselves is to survive. I believe that is what my father wanted for me and knew I would so desperately need: a tool for survival, the truth of my dignity named like a mercy new each morning.” So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself. Writing memorably of her own childhood and coming to self, Arthur Riley boldly explores some of the most urgent questions of life and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this indelible work of contemplative storytelling, Arthur Riley invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it. At once a compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative, This Here Flesh speaks potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.

What does it mean to heal from grief? Is it something we do alone, or is healing a communal effort? What does support look like for grieving people, and where do we go for that support? How do we support people we love who are grieving? These are some of the things we talk about in this second conversation about grief. Some of the areas we discuss are the ways that churches show up (and don't) when we are suffering a loss, how grief connects to the rituals of different religious seasons and practices, and some of the worst things people say in the face of a person's loss. Resources: How to Process our Collective Grief (https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2022/06/23/how-to-process-our-collective-grief) Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52623750-wintering) Marked by Covid (https://www.markedbycovid.com/) Black Liturgies on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/blackliturgies/)

In her student days, Cole Arthur Riley was an atheist eagerly searching for peace, in what she now smilingly describes as a "grand search for ultimate truth". Reflecting back, she thinks that journey turned out to be a mask to placate her own discomfort with mystery. In this in-depth interview with Premier Christianity's Sam Hailes, the author of the critically acclaimed book This Here Flesh and founder of Black Liturgies unpacks how she ultimately found faith.  The Profile is sponsored by Premier Christianity magazine. Receive the next 3 print issues for just £5. Visit premierchristianity.com/subscribe

In the age of social media, many of us have been wired to respond to injustice and tragedy online. For Cole Arthur Riley, her processing of such events coupled with her liturgical formation and Black experience combined to birth Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body. In this conversation, we talk about what it's like to be Black creators on social media under the white gaze, how memory gives us hope to pull from as we recount the experiences of those who came before us, and what we dream for the future liberation of Black people.  Let's stay connected! Find Dani on social media: www.facebook.com/ohhappydani www.instagram.com/ohhappydani www.twitter.com/ohhappydani Find Cole Arthur Riley on social media: www.instagram.com/blackliturgies www.instagram.com/colearthurriley Find the podcast on social media: www.instagram.com/fortheultimategood Grab artwork for the heart and home at www.ohhappydani.com Reach out about the podcast to admin@ohhappydani.com For the Ultimate Good is produced by Lovely House Media.

Rachael Clinton Chen is joined by Linda Royster from The Allender Center as they co-host this conversation with a very special guest. Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. She is the author of the New York Times best selling book, This Here Flesh. In the first part of this conversation, Cole talks about the impact of her family of origin and how she came to tell her story. Be sure to stay tuned for the conclusion of this conversation in next week's podcast episode, in which Cole will share how her story led her to a new understanding of the Divine.

In this beautiful conversation–in which Glennon names Cole's book “This Here Flesh” the Next Right Book–we discuss:  1. What we learned from Cole's insight that, “If you're not in your body, someone else is.”  2. A mind-blowing revelation about all of our own faces that we will never stop thinking about.  3. Why the phrase “If you don't believe you're beautiful, no one else will” is horseshit.   4. Why dignity is the bedrock to being alive–and how to find it when we haven't been loved well.  5. The connection between fear and awe–and how to practice wonder as a cure for despair.  About Cole:  Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body.  TW: @blackliturgist IG:  @colearthurriley @blackliturgies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of A People's Theology is sponsored by United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Receive a $1,000 scholarship when you apply and are admitted: unitedseminary.edu/apeoplestheology In this episode Mason chats with Cole Arthur Riley about her new book, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us. They chat about why embodiment is essential to spirituality and much more. Guest Bio/Info: Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies. She is also the recent author of This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us. Find Cole here: colearthurriley.com Instagram: blackliturgies Twitter: @blackliturgist Facebook: facebook.com/blackliturgist Special music by Trey Pearson: Spotify: Trey Pearson Instagram: treypearson Get connected to Mason: masonmennenga.com Patreon: patreon.com/masonmennenga Twitter: @masonmennenga Facebook: facebook.com/mason.mennenga Instagram: masonmennenga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a special bonus episode and conversation on stillness with New York Times best selling author Cole Arthur Riley.   Cole is a writer, poet and the author of “THIS HERE FLESH: Spirituality, Liberation and the Stories that Make Us." Cole is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a hugely popular and important Instagram space.   This conversation is honest and authentic as we discuss liturgy, wonder, spiritual formation, breath prayer, and more.   For more on Cole, visit http://www.colearthurriley.com @colearthurriley @blackliturgies

We are honored to offer you a special guest meditation on Rest by Cole Arthur Riley, New York Times best selling Author of “This Here Flesh.” Cole is also the Creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest, and a project of the Center for Dignity.   This reading and meditation is taken from “This Here Flesh” on the subject of rest. We invite you to enter into a place of centering stillness. Relax any areas of tension you are carrying. Take several slow, deep breaths and become in tune with the Divine breath within you. Then settle in and enjoy a few moments of stillness as we reflect on the gift of rest with Cole Arthur Riley.   For more on Cole and her work, visit www.colearthurriley.com @colearthurriley and @blackliturgies

“I am interested in reclaiming a contemplation that is not exclusive to whiteness, intellectualism, ableism, or mere hobby. And as a Black woman, I am disinterested in any call to spirituality that divorces my mind from my body, voice, or people.”– An excerpt from This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley In Episode 002 of Become A Good Ancestor, Layla Saad interviews writer, liturgist, and speaker, Cole Arthur Riley.Cole's NYT bestselling book, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us is our May 2022 book selection in the Become A Good Ancestor Book Club. To find out more about the book and to join us in the book club click here. In her stunning debut, Cole weaves stories from three generations of her family with contemplative reflections to discover the necessary rituals that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.Cole's writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator. Cole currently serves as the spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University's Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making.In this interview, Layla and Cole explore:How Cole was inspired to write This Here FleshCole's experience with chronic illness and how it shaped her view of owning her body.The experiences of Cole's ancestors and how they not only shaped who she is today, but inspired a book that embodies multiple generational experiencesWhat it means to become disembodied and how this can affect the way we not only see ourselves, but how others see us.“This is the spirituality that if I'm going to do this, I want to communicate this kind of contemplation, this kind of spirituality when it's intergenerational, when that's embodied, when that's emotional.”— Cole Author Riley, Author of This Here Flesh, Episode 002 of Become A Good Ancestor Podcast Learn more and follow Cole Arthur Riley:Website: https://colearthurriley.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackliturgies/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/blackliturgist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackliturgist/ Join the Become A Good Ancestor Community:Website https://www.becomeagoodancestor.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/become_a_good_ancestor/ Book Club https://www.becomeagoodancestor.com/book-club Patreon  www.patreon.com/becomeagoodancestor BookShopU.S.: https://bookshop.org/shop/goodancestorbookclub-usUK: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/goodancestorbookclub-uk 

Barbara and Donny welcome Cole Arthur Riley to this episode of The Cosmic We to explore the power of our stories. Cole Arthur Riley is writer who was formed by thinkers such as Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Julian of Norwich, to name a few. Cole studied writing at the University of Pittsburgh, but traces her love of words back to her father, who would bribe her and her siblings to write poems and stories to get out of chores, or for cold hard cash; and her gramma who was part writer, part sage.  Cole currently serves as the spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University's Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. She is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator.  Connect with us: To send a question to Dr. Barbara and Donny, or to share your thoughts, comments, or feedback with us about this show: Send us an email. Cole Arthur Riley: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram The transcript for this episode can be found here. This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would love to support the ongoing work of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the continued work of our podcasts, you can donate at cac.org/podcastsupport Thank you!

Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.This week Katherine chats to writer and poet Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies. Unable to speak up as a child, Cole talks about how she learned to find her voice amid a family of gifted talkers and storytellers. Cole describes her father and grandmother as inspirational figures who nevertheless were marked by the generational trauma experienced by so many African Americans. But from this emerges Cole's own, unique spiritual account of the world, overseen by a God who lives in our hurting, imperfect bodies, and who sees us as we are.Cole is one of the most lyrical, perceptive and moving writers of her generation, at once cerebral and earthly, and always rooted in the body. We talk about Cole's hair turning grey as a child, her wise grandmother and inspirational father, and the moments when she came to realise that both of them needed her care.COLE LINKSOnlineThis Here FleshBlack LiturgiesAll other Cole links HEREKATHERINE LINKSShop all books from The Wintering SessionsPatreonHomepageTwitterInstagramThe Wintering SessionsKatherine's writing classNote: this contains affiliate links which means Katherine will receive a small commission for any purchases made. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We are back with season 7 and happy to kick off this new season with Cole Arthur Riley. Cole is a writer and the creator of Black Liturgies, a contemplative writing project centering Black dignity, healing, and liberation. Cole also currently serves as spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University’s Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. Her debut book is This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Follow Cole Arthur Riley on IG @blackliturgies and @colearthurriley Follow Drew Hart on Instagram and Twitter @druhart. Follow Jarrod McKenna on Instagram and Twitter @jarrodmckenna. Discover our global community on Twitter and Instagram @inversepodcast. Become a Patron of Inverse at https://www.patreon.com/InVerse Inverse Podcast is produced by Jen Kinney @iamjenkinney

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer. She is the creator of Black Liturgies, a contemplative writing project centering Black dignity, healing, and liberation. Cole also currently serves as spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell University’s Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. Her debut book is This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Follow Cole Arthur Riley on IG @blackliturgies and @colearthurriley Follow Drew Hart on Instagram and Twitter @druhart. Follow Jarrod McKenna on Instagram and Twitter @jarrodmckenna. Discover our global community on Twitter and Instagram @inversepodcast. Become a Patron of Inverse at https://www.patreon.com/InVerse Inverse Podcast is produced by Jen Kinney @iamjenkinney

In this episode with the founder of Black Liturgies, Cole Arthur Riley, we discuss the power of sacred attention, the importance of resting in the stories, and what it means to let the true self live in expanse. She defines contemplation as “a certain commitment to paying attention,” and mysticism as “a fidelity to magic,” and shares more about her contemplative writing process for her newly released book, This Here Flesh.

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and poet, and the creator of Black Liturgies, “a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with literature and spirituality”. On this week's podcast, she talks about her debut book This Here Flesh: Spirituality, liberation and the stories that make us, which is a New York Times bestseller. An extract is published in this week's Church Times (1 April). Cole is in conversation with Chine McDonald, director of Theos, whose latest book is God is Not a White Man: And other revelations (Hodder & Stoughton) (Podcast, 28 May 2021; (Books, 11 June 2021) This Here Flesh is published by John Murray Press and is available to buy from the Church Times Bookshop for the discounted price of £14.99. https://colearthurriley.com/ Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader.

S7 E15: In this episode, meet writer Amy Bloom, journalist Daniel Genis, and Black Liturgies creator Cole Arthur Riley. Step into the recording booth and hear Amy Bloom discuss what inspired her to share her husband's story, Daniel Genis on using literature to find meaning in 10 years spent incarcerated, and Cole Arthur Riley on the power of storytelling as a family tradition. In Love by Amy Bloom: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/677454/in-love/ Sentence by Daniel Genis: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/318647/sentence/ This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/673836/this-here-flesh/

How do we know when we are in a space of true belonging, where our whole person can be welcome, present, and safe? Co-hosts Patricia Taylor, Kayla Craig, and Lindsy Wallace talk with writer, liturgist, and speaker Cole Arthur Riley about freedom and belonging—the good and the bad kind.In this episode, we:Discuss how Black Liturgies came to be and why Cole chose to initially remain anonymousShare definitions of true belonging: spaces where we have the freedom to question, doubt, and change our minds without our status of belonging being at riskConsider how our bodies know what belonging is as opposed to assimilation or conformityTalk about the importance of solitude to better understand what belonging is for each of usPoint out how not all belonging is good and that there are consequences for both staying and leavingAsk what our ancestors teach us about belonging and liberation from harmful spacesWonder what it looks like for there to be a space of belonging for everyone and how, perhaps, it starts with the least of these to shape that spaceJoin us in this conversation about finding belonging and the community that comes with it. We hope it gives you more language for your journey and imagination for what could be.News, Notes, and Links:Follow Cole and her work on her website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and be sure to grab a copy of her new book, This Here Flesh.Add Toni Morrison's Beloved to your bookshelf, if you haven't already.Support more conversations like this on Upside Down Podcast! Please visit us, where you can pledge a few dollars of monthly support to help us pay our bills and keep the conversations going.Learn more at Upside Down Podcast.We're on Instagram, too. You can find us individually at @patricia_a_taylor, @kayla_craig, @from_here_sessions, and @lindsy.wallace.Join the Upside Down Together listener group on Facebook!Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/upsidedownpodcast)

We're back with more of our Faith Shakers series–with another person of faith who's inhabiting something different than what we normally expect or see in faith spaces. When it comes to better understanding the church and how faith exists outside its walls, we must take into consideration voices that haven't been largely represented in many church traditions. Communities of color were often not considered in the long history of  liturgy in the church–and if you're not familiar with what liturgy is, the technical definition is the “ritual or script for various forms of public worship in churches.” And those scripts weren't scripts and rituals didn't take into account the Black experience. That's where our guest today comes in. Cole Arthur Riley is an author and the creator behind the uber popular Black Liturgies, which has blown up on Instagram over the last couple of years. Cole daily shares the poems and prayers she has created that invite Black dignity, lament, rage, justice, and rest. She and Jen talk about how hard it can be to go against the grain in spaces of faith, and the power of trading acceptance for inner stability.  As Cole says, “when you have that inner stability of heart, it gives you courage to step away and say ‘I trust that I am going to find belonging elsewhere.'” * * * Thank you to our sponsors!   Chime | Sign up today at chime.com/forthelove.    Stamps.com | Sign up with promo code FORTHELOVE today at stamps.com for a 4-week trial.    Noom Mood | Sign up for your trial at noom.com/FTL today. 

The effects of trauma often surface in our embodied existence. What about hope? Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies, talks with Amy Julia Becker about bearing witness to the pain of the world through our bodies, the healing found in belonging, and the importance of weaving together self-care and community-care for social healing.SHOW NOTES AND GIVEAWAYView full show notes and transcript from this episode, plus book giveaway info: amyjuliabecker.com/cole-arthur-rileyGUEST BIO“Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and speaker seeking a deeply contemplative life marked by embodiment and emotion. She is the founder and writer of Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer.”___*A transcript of this episode will be available within one business day, as well as a video with closed captions on my YouTube Channel.

Writer Cole Arthur Riley's path to God was long and winding. She explored many religious traditions, but God eventually used the written word—a medium near and dear to her heart—to draw her to Him. Founder of the creative community Black Liturgies, Cole shares why stories touch us like nothing else, and why God has always used them to shape our understanding of Him.   Quotes “I think our humanity demands the creative, and I think good spirituality asks a kind of artistry in each of us.” —Cole Arthur Riley “The Christians that I had encountered up to that point were all very intense, and frankly, made me believe that God was a white man with blue eyes, which created some dissonance in me as a Black woman.” —Cole Arthur Riley “I like to think that God knew that I, whose identity was so situated within books and reading, that that God used the one thing that I felt safe in to draw me into the divine.” —Cole Arthur Riley “I know a God who sees me in the fullness of who I am, who sees me in my Blackness and sees beauty amplified in my Blackness and doesn't ask me to diminish it in order to find belonging.” —Cole Arthur Riley “It all began with the Word. You know, Christ Himself likened to a word. So it's no surprise to me that our faith leads us to revere them and to revere stories.” —Cole Arthur Riley   Cole's LinksCole's website Cole's Facebook Cole's Twitter Cole's Instagram   Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeCornell University   Connect with Sally Lloyd-JonesJesus Storybook Bible Facebook Jesus Storybook Bible Instagram  Sally's website Sally's Facebook Sally's Instagram   *Episode produced by Four Eyes Media*

The creator of Black Liturgies and author of the debut This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. In the convo we talk about practice, creating space for Black bodies in lament and liturgy. It's a really cute time. GET THE BOOK! Follow Cole @ColeArthurRiley @BlackLiturgies Follow me @theKevinGarcia JOIN THE CROWDED TABLE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this epsidoe Brandi is joined by creator of Black Liturgies (@blackliturgies) and author of the now out (TODAY) book This Here Flesh, Cole Arthur Riley. They talk about how Black contemplative practices can help us from from outside of our bodies to having greater relationship with ourselves and our connection to the divine. You can find her book where ever books are sold (ITS MAD GOOD, Y'ALL). Our lent devotional has just dropped for this year (the e-book will be up at the end of the week of 2/21), so grab a copy at shoprmt.com!If you like what you hear, subscribe, rate, and review or just tell folks about the show. You can join us on patreon at patreon.com/brandinico. Reclaiming My Theology is recorded, produced, and editted by Brandi Miller, our music is by Sanchez Fair. 

Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She once took a professor's advice very seriously to begin writing a little every day, and has followed it for nearly a decade.In This Episode:Find out more about Cole's work and order a copy of her bookYou can follow Cole on Twitter and InstagramYou can pre-order Andre's book All The White Friends I Couldn't Keep. Sign up for Andre's Hope & Hard Pills Newsletter at his website. Catch up with Andre on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. Check out Andre's Patreon if you'd like to support what's going on with his work!Music: It Doesn't Have To Be This Way (Remix) by Andre Henry.

Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She once took a professor's advice very seriously to begin writing a little every day, and has followed it for nearly a decade.Read more on "This Here Flesh."Website: https://colearthurriley.com/Twitter/Instagram: @blackliturgies---Find Rose on the internet:  IG  FB Twitter WebsiteHow to support:  PatreonI just launched a newsletter called "A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy" (Subscription fee optional)--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rose-percy5/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rose-percy5/support Get full access to A Gentle Landing at agentlelanding.substack.com/subscribeSupport the show

On this episode of 20 Minute Takes, Nikki Toyama-Szeto talk with Cole Arthur Riley, the creator of Black Liturgies and author of the new book, This Here Flesh. Listen in as they discuss liturgy, generational strength, and embodied practices of healing and attentiveness.Check out our Q&A with her about her book.You can learn more about Cole, here.In addition to @BlackLiturgies, you can find her @colearthurriley.

“The women in my family are storytellers. They understand the importance of storytelling in intimacy and building connection. They know how to draw out stories. They know how to remember well. If I mirror any part of them today, it would be that.”In this episode I am in the garden with Cole Arthur Riley. Cole shares how she has learned storytelling from the women in her family, how being conscious of her own story affects the way she shows up in the world, and how understanding the stories of the mothers in her life impacts her relationship with them. Cole Arthur Riley is the spiritual teacher in residence with Cornell's Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making. She is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation.Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied writing at the University of Pittsburgh. Her debut book, This Here Flesh, will be published by Penguin Random House in February of 2022.

Cole Arthur Riley grew up in a house full of personalities that she describes as loud and funny, but as a kid, as loved as she felt, she kept her voice from others. In fact, Cole barely spoke until she was 7. Still, her dad kept finding ways to, as she described, bribe her to share her voice and nurture her creative impulse, often in writing, from poems to stories and beyond. As she grew into herself, she developed a dual passion for contemplative spirituality, and also the work of writers, like Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou. Over time, her lens on spirituality yearned for a more expansive expression, one that embodied more of her lived experience as a Black, queer woman, who'd also find herself living with an autoimmune disease that manifested in illness, pain, and uncertainty.Cole was drawn to liturgy and began to write her own blended prayer-meets-poetry, informed by her, unique experience of life, faith, love, creativity, harm, inequity, and justice. She began sharing these modern liturgies on Instagram under the moniker, Black Liturgies, which she describes as a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest. The project quickly grew into a global phenomenon, with deep resonance far beyond her original intended audience, and led to her debut book, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us, which explores some of the most urgent questions of life, identity, and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this stunning work, Cole invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it.You can find Cole at: Website | InstagramIf you LOVED this episode:You'll also love the earlier conversation we had with Ashley C. Ford about her sense of identity, creativity, and expression.My new book is available!Order Sparked: Discover Your Unique Imprint for Work that Makes You Come Alive today!Check out our offerings & partners: KiwiCo: KiwiCo delivers science and art projects for kids of all ages. Redefine learning with play— explore hands-on projects that build creative confidence and problem-solving skills with KiwiCo! Get 50% off your first month plus FREE shipping on ANY crate line with code GOODLIFE at kiwico.com.Squarespace: Squarespace is the all-in-one solution for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. Check Out Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you are ready to launch go to squarespace.com/GLP and use offer code: GLP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cole Author Riley, founder of Black Liturgies, joins the show to discuss myths, cults, and her new book This Here Flesh.  

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Cole Arthur Riley, a writer and liturgist who founded Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer. In this episode we talk with Cole about her family and upbringing (including her heromaker Dad) and why she was prompted to start Black Liturgies in the summer/fall of 2020. We talk about wrestling with pain and trauma, and why rest and rediscovery may be the answer to our losses and wounds. Cole is honest about the growth of her platform and being authentic to herself, and of course we talk about her upcoming book by Convergent Books - it's a must-read to understand black history and roundedness and to rediscover some missing elements that make for a fuller and richer life. Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com. Cole can be found on Instagram at www.instagram.com/blackliturgies. She is also at https://colearthurriley.com. Her latest book, This Here Flesh - a FANTASTIC READ, can be pre-ordered here.You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. Like us and follow us today!And share this episode with your friends. Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

Join us on a journey back through Sacred Intersection's Top 5 Moments of 2021 including Josh Duggar's conviction, gratitude for our guests and guest hosts, and of course, stories about our ROADIES! Then continue listening and journey even further back in time for a rerun of last year's episode about how people may experience religious harm around the holidays. Prayer from Black Liturgies on Instagram (follow her!!) Prayer from Cole Arthur Riley on Facebook Jan Richardson's Blessing for the Longest Night Contact Info for Paula's Center for Healing Religious Harm We are grateful for our Roadies and the opportunity to be on this journey together! We would love to hear from you: your hopes and dreams for future episode topics, questions, Sacred Intersections in your life, and anything else you'd like to share with us. You can interact with us in lots of ways: Our website: www.sacredintersectionspodcast.com Email: sacredintersectionspodcast@gmail.com Social Media: @sacredintersectionspodcast on Facebook and Instagram and @sacredpod on Twitter Annnnd...we have merch! http://tee.pub/lic/sacredintersections --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This week's Life Talk speaker is Cole Arthur Riley, founder and writer of Black Liturgies, "a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer."Support the show (https://www.saintandrews.org/give/)

What comes to mind when you think of prayer? In this episode, Patricia Taylor, Alissa Molina, and Lindsy Wallace interview co-host Kayla Craig about her upcoming book, To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers & Liturgies for Parents, and expanding our idea of prayer. In this episode, we:Ask Kayla where her belief that prayer is real and powerful comes from, especially in light of how much prayer gets casually thrown aroundConsider how everything in our lives can be prayerRecount how a difficult experience led Kayla to examine what prayer meant to her and the transformation that happened in her understanding of prayerDiscuss how she addresses tough and complex topics in a nuanced, inclusive way that makes space for allAsk what does persistence in prayer through our weariness and our wait look likeJoin us as we talk about Kayla's journey of putting together her book. We can't recommend it enough to anyone with children in their lives: caregivers, educators, and so on.  News, Notes, and Links:Preorder a copy of To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayers & Liturgies for Parents from Amazon or from Soul Book Nook, a Black-owned book store that's local to Kayla and can ship anywhere.Can't wait to get your hands on your copy? Here's a special preview.Kayla has put together a collection of free gifts as a thank you to anyone who preorders the book before October 5. Get access to a printable collection of 12 breath prayer cards, a 5-day guided devotional for overwhelmed parents, and a downloadable art print for your home or office.Are you on Goodreads? Be sure to add Kayla's book to your lists and leave a review.Follow Liturgies for Parents and Kayla on Instagram, and check out Kayla's website here. We love Cole Arthur Riley's prayers at Black Liturgies. Support more conversations like this on Upside Down Podcast! Please visit us, where you can pledge a few dollars of monthly support to help us pay our bills and keep the conversations going.Learn more at Upside Down Podcast.We're on Instagram, too. You can find us individually at @patricia_a_taylor, @kayla_craig, @alissarmolina, and @lindsy.wallace.Join the Upside Down Together listener group on Facebook!Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/upsidedownpodcast)

Every Christian faces a time in their relationship with Jesus that is frustrating, that's full of questions, full of doubt, full of wondering if God is even real, if He listens, or if He cares. But time and time again, the Lord has proven that He does hear your every prayer, as Psalm 66:19 reminds us: “God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.” God is also okay with our doubts—He gives us the space we need to figure out for ourselves that He is good, all the time, and He will be with us always. This week's guests are two dreamers—the founder of IT Cosmetics, the largest luxury makeup company in the country, Jamie Kern Lima, who faced years of trials and God doubt but managed to find a way to keep the faith, and God rewarded her with the breakthrough she'd been longing for. And the creator of Black Liturgies, Cole Arthur Riley, a born skeptic who educated herself on a variety of religions before finding a home in the Christian church who held space for her questions.   Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned: Jesus Calling Podcast Psalm 66:19 NIV Jesus Calling TV show Jesus Calling Stories of Faith Susie McEntire-Eaton Circleallacess.com Past interview: Dominic Done Upcoming interview: Michael Franzese   Jamie Kern Lima IT Cosmetics Believe It Jesus Calling app Rosacea QVC Cosmetic Executive Women Miss Lisa Mason. QVC show host jamiekernlima.com  itcosmetics.com   Cole Arthur Riley Black Liturgies Chesterton House Blackliturgust.com Instagram   Interview Quotes: “I think so many of us learn that sometimes God's setbacks are really set ups for what we're supposed to do next.” - Jamie Kern Lima “Truthfully, there are nights when I'd get these really hard rejections and I'd end up crying myself to sleep. And the one thing that kept going as I would literally pray and be like, ‘God, I feel like you put this dream on my heart and I don't understand why it's not working, am I wrong?'” - Jamie Kern Lima “All of us have had people reject us or tell us we're not enough or we need to change who we are to fit in or we don't belong. And I think so many times learning to turn down the volume on that and not let it take root in our spirit is so important, because I believe our calling is always stronger than our opposition.” - Jamie Kern Lima “I would rather show real women all ages, shapes, sizes, skin challenges, skin tones. And if the single mom in Nebraska is going to give me two seconds of her time and she turns on her television, even if she buys nothing, I would rather have her see women who look like her and me calling them beautiful and meaning it, than sell a ton of product and stand for nothing.” - Jamie Kern Lima “I was really fortunate to have spiritual mentors early on that allowed me to have a lot of agency over my seeking even as they were teaching me things that probably felt really basic to them in many ways.” - Cole Arthur Riley “Words do have tremendous power, both their presence and their absence. I think our task as Christians is to be really honest and faithful discerners of what any given moment calls for, voice or silence. Both can be oppressive, but both can be beautiful disciplines of rest, hope, and solidarity.” - Cole Arthur Riley “It can be a real gift for us to join voices with other people across space and across time to say, ‘This is who God is, this is who we are,' and to tell the story.” - Cole Arthur Riley ________________________ Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel: Audio Playlist: https://bit.ly/2PrbuwH Video Playlist: https://bit.ly/2PsmEkJ What's Good? Playlist: https://bit.ly/3i7VUlZ ________________________  Connect with Jesus Calling Instagram Facebook Twitter Pinterest YouTube Jesus Calling Website

Today I am joined today by the ever inspiring Cole Arthur Riley! Cole is the creator and liturgist behind Black Liturgies (@blackliturgies), a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer. Cole is also currently the Content and Spiritual Formation Manager for a center for Christian studies at Cornell University.In this discussion, Cole retells how she came into her spiritual/liturgical practice and how it came in direct correlation with her studies of Black Liberation and Existential-esc philosophy. We also explore topics such as; concreteness v. malleability  within faith practices, power of written prayer/pray language, and ancestral understandings of liberation. I am boundlessly grateful for Cole and the space we were able to facilitate in our conversation. Follow the links below to support Cole's pressingly important work, and as always be sure to follow, rate, and subscribe to the show!Black Liturgies: - https://blackliturgist.com-https://www.patreon.com/blackliturgies-@balckliturgies : Instagram + twitterSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=56469925&fan_landing=true)

Cole Arthur Riley, the creator of Black Liturgies, talks to us about the importance of implementing dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation in our faith practice.

In the Valley Series   Our conversation on Joy & Rest will be heavily influenced by Cole Arthur Riley's unique prayer expression, “Black Liturgies”, that speaks to blackness, black emotion, black thought, black belonging and liberation. She gives great thought and encouragement for how we can lean into joy and rest in the midst of all the trauma as well as how we can be pushed towards hope in our pursuit of justice.   Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, speaker seeking a deeply contemplative life marked by embodiment and emotion. She is the founder and writer of Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer.   She currently serves as the Content and Spiritual Formation Manager for a center for Christian studies at Cornell University called Chesterton House. In her work, she produces and curates content to guide others into deeper musings and embodiment of the faith. At present, Cole is concerned with topics of dignity, lament, belonging, justice, rest, and liberation. Some thinkers who have formed her include James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Julian of Norwich.   This is part 3 of 4 episodes and today's topic is on finding joy in the valley.    Host: Alethea Lamberson & Matthew Melendrez Guest: Cole Arthur Riley Guest Website: https://blackliturgist.com/ Guest IG/Twitter/Facebook: @blackliturgist Producer: Caleb Dea Social Media & Marketing: Jazzlyn Venkataya Designer: Cameron Stingley Admin Assistant: Alexandra Suarez   Follow us on IG: @therolldownpodcast   The Roll Down podcast is part of the Chasing Justice Podcast Network. To find out more, visit chasingjustice.com

We invited, Cole Arthur Riley, the founder and author of Black Liturgies to talk with us about the role of faith in racial justice and her experience giving words to the movement in the form of prayer. We talk about making space for lament and slow processing while also listening to the stories of our ancestors to learn from triumphs. While we recognize that this conversation is being offered through the lens and language of the Christian faith, we believe Cole's work, writings and the history are universal and we invite all to explore racial trauma, justice and lament, through your own spiritual practice, and your own experience. Instagram: @blackliturgies Website: blackliturgist.com

Find Michael Chen on instagram @aapi.liturgy Michael Chen lives in Philadelphia with his wife Rachael and their two boys.  He is a graduate of Princeton Seminary earned his Master of Divinity, and is currently working on a PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy at Eastern University.  As a long time campus minister, he has a heart for helping people live more fully into their  unique identity and vocation.  In his free time he likes exploring cities and eating dumplings.  Also, he is a karaoke champion. Maggie had the privilege and honor to meet Michael at Allender Center where they were trained in Narrative Focused Trauma Care - Level II.Michael is coming in tired and grateful. He's coming off of a few late nights but also good conversations and meaningful work. He's been in quarantine lock-down since the beginning (March 2020). Having married his wife Rachael in October of 2019, they enter their first year of marriage and hit the “accelerator” to get to know each other: getting to know all the quirks and dynamics of newly married life during the pandemic. They've hit wall emotionally and spiritually in this season. They've definitely triggered each other but have so much faith, trust and love in one another. He is looking froward to Philadelphia opening up a bit more. His boys start hybrid school next week and baseball season is starting up.Maggie checks in with Michael around how he is holding the Derek Chauvin verdict. He's angry that his Black siblings felt so much relief at something that should have been a “no brainer.” And he certainly has mixed emotions because he too felt relief. There was this sense of, “how can it be the case that something so seemingly straightforward and clear would even be in question?”Danielle says that white folks talk about justice in a way that they are entitled to it, that justice is a right. This exposes historical narratives back to Emmet Till, people along the border, and so many others that have been murdered… But justice is not a built in right for all people. Michael adds, “and hence the relief…I don't like that.”Michael asks how Danielle and Maggie processed the verdict and also hearing the news of Ma'Kaia Bryant on the same day, and what a tail spin that was. Maggie agreed that tailspin is a perfect way to describe her feelings — it was a sense of not knowing which direction is up or down. She too held a mixed bag of emotion - A sense of relief at the accountability, a small measure of justice, at the guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin, as well as anger knowing how much work there is to be done with police reform, gun control and white supremacy in our country. And then feeling the overwhelming sense of, “How long, Oh Lord?” When hearing the news of Ma'Kaia Bryant. Watching videos of her showing her peers how to do hair… She wept. The only thing she could say was “How long?” Because there was no knowing of how to make meaning or sense of all that had happened in that one day.Michael believes that, “we were not built to take in this much information this quickly without a sense of ritual, a sense of grief, or a space for mourning.” There is a feeling that our bodies can not process the amount of trauma in the news at the rate and intensity it is coming at us. He reminds himself to stay cognizant of that.Danielle wrote an essay on April 19th about Adam, Dante and the impact of the massacre in Atlanta along with her journey to become a therapist. No sooner had she sent it off to get published when the verdict came in and Ma'Kaia Bryant was killed. She went to bed and felt like “this essay is no longer true.” She pulled the essay, edited it and resubmitted it today (April 23) to be published on May 3rd and her thought was, “Oh Lord, will I have to change this again? Will there be more stories to tell? I already know in my bones that it won't feel right to leave a name out…”  She agrees with Michael, it is too much to take in. And sometimes she says feels like all we can do is to say their name. Michael adds, which feels like another injustice or violation.Maggie mentioned Michael's new work with AAPI.liturgy on instagram and read a recent post about looking at trauma in a way to include collective trauma. The post says: “A group experience of pain, loss or catastrophe that shatters the social bonds that form a community, resulting in loss of trust, dissolution of roles and boundaries, and the breaking of group identity.” - Kai EriksonIn beginning to define trauma with the collective, it is expanding our idea of trauma from an individual felt embodied experience to “as individual bodies experiencing trauma collectively.” Maggie said that is in fact what we just described as we have processed what it has been like to live in our bodies even just the last few days with collective trauma.Michael has thought for a long time that he does not know what it means to be Asian. He has grown up in a predominately white spaces in Minnesota and had taken a position in an a ministry organization as the director for cross cultural ministry, where he functioned as a mediator between white leadership and predominately Black staff. It felt like he had to do a lot of work on African-American History.Race as a construct in his experience has been a binary between Black and white.  He has been inspired by his friend Cole Arther Riley of Black Liturgies in bringing Black history, identity, literature and poetry into liturgical spaces of prayer and spiritual formation. He thinks that the people he is talking to, whether that is professors or people on instagram, are still asking the question: what does it mean to Asian American and Christian?Michael believes that we are in a coming of age moment; people are seeking identity right now.  So it is with that in mind that he started aapi.litgury with a sense of openness. He believes there is something to be explored around trauma, history and trying to formulate and articulate a way of being that might be helpful to Asian Americans as they grapple with their identity.  He says, “What if we started with a collective definition to the question, what is trauma? Would that change our ideas of how we conceive of healing?” He doesn't have the answer but he found the quote provocative as it was shared by Kai Cheng Thom, a Trans woman, at a trauma conference called Tending the Roots. It has been a journey for Michael to put himself in spaces and places to listen and learn from folks at the margins. And then at the margins of the Asian-American Community. The margins of the margins.Trauma primarily as collective is the violation of boundaries and the breaking down of roles and identities. He still has a lot of questions about gender and sexuality, but it is his understanding that in traditional Asian cultures there is evidence that trans individuals, those with more gender fluidity, took on the roles of priests and mediators for the community. They mediated between binaries, they had roles and identities, and there is a sense in these cultures of not letting people fall  into the margins: People get a place in the community. Colonialism and Western Individualism holds us back at some level to imagine people with various identities having roles for healing and connecting.Danielle says there is a unity in viewing the collective trauma that has a way of stripping shame of its power; the shame for the trauma you've experienced as an individual. Shame weds us to beliefs about ourselves and communities. There is something powerful about coming together.Michael notes it is a different perspective to think of trauma starting from the collective standpoint. To figure out how to deal with rules and shame with the collective in mind is a different emphasis and a different way of seeing trauma.What Maggie likes best is about this new way of looking at trauma is that it is expanding outside of ourselves. There is a tendency in Western Culture to think of only how we are individually impacted by trauma, and certainly trauma is an individually felt and embodied experience. But to open it up to a broader, bigger felt experience of connectedness shows our beautiful interconnected nature as human beings.Maggie as a witness to Michael's offerings on aapi.liturgy sees how he has named and acknowledged some of the common felt experiences of the Asian community. His recent post, “Appeasement and apology have been too much a part of our daily liturgy. These are our survival instincts. The new AAPI liturgy will be full of quiet strength and holy wonder.” She says it is a way name and reclaim, and move forward the experience of Asian Americans.Michael recalls a book his professor wrote called “At the Margins: Asian American Theology.” It is a theology of liminality and being caught in the margins. One part that Michael got stuck on in the book was that his professor was a US Citizen for 50 years and still felt unwelcome; Like an outsider, he was still needing to defer and appease those around him. This resonated so much with Michael's own experience; The most current iteration for himself was the experience of volunteering to be a baseball coach. He was the first one to respond to the email and the commissioner made him the head coach. Immediately Michael said no, he could not take on the role. And feeling like he still has that voice of “sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry.” Or “Don't take up space.”  “I'm not going to get in your way.” “I'm not a problem.” It is such a survival technique to not be a destructive presence and there is also something honorable in pursing harmony and equanimity and peace, but Michael asks, at what cost?Danielle says she imagines that the minute you don't enter the space with appeasement and apology, there is disruption for dominate culture folks.Michael responds, “Yeah absolutely and then we have to decide. And typically we haven't been in power, we've been more at the margins, at the periphery of society, organizations, the church… Then we're gonna decide how much we're gonna bear.”Danielle names that as soon as the disruption happens, then there is so much more that follows if you then additionally say something.In a previous Christian ministry employer, the role of director of cross cultural ministry, people would only last a year or two. Michael stayed for five years. A lot of that time he said was appeasement and sometimes apology. He said, we tend to ‘eat it.”Danielle said that someone once asked her, “how much sin do you want to eat from a white folk?” And that stuck with her because sometimes we (as People of Color) just do. We eat the sin of white folk.Michael said it is a continual calculation of the costs of do I want to stay in this context or be ostracized, marginalized, off on the periphery again?Danielle named that even as we talk, the center is still whiteness. Even the conversation, it is still whiteness at the center. She asked Maggie what she is thinking.Maggie said she is pondering the cost for Michael to show up in spaces and bring the fullness of who he is. First in the very public space of his work on the AAPI.liturgy and but also in the pursuit of his PhD.Michael says his PhD cohort is another space where he is the only Asian: Amidst a beautiful diverse group of black and white, the only Asian face. He has learned to try to advocate for himself and his people in ways that feel potentially costly. He said it is a safe group, but there is the fear that is still there for him. With respect to instagram, he does not feel he is in danger. Michael wonders who is this for? He reminds himself when posting, if it can be of meaning for other Asian Americans trying to figure out their identity in God, then beautiful. But is it also for him. He has to ask himself, “How much teaching do I want to do? How much work do I want to do in explaining?” Overall he feels that if there are a number of people who are benefiting, and it is putting words and language to help move them through trauma and bring healing, to be seen and heard, then it's worth the cost.Michael is curious about where we grew up and our experiences of Asian Americans, the narratives that came out in our growing up. Part of what he is doing on the instagram account is trying to name some of these stereotypes and narratives and then deal with them, engage them. “Asians are good at math,” so the wrote a post about math.Maggie has grown up in the PNW and has had many interactions with Asians, but one of the posts that he put about Asians being silent hit her: “To be Asian American is to be silent. Silence has been both our greatest feat and our worst fear. Silence grounded in mindfulness brings unflinching fortitude. Silence driven by fear leads to an even deeper shame.” When Maggie thinks about interacting with Asians as a child she does think of that stereotype of Asians being quiet. And into her high school years, one of her best friends was half Chinese and she was not quiet at all. She recalls, “We tore it up.. We would have a good time and were kinda wild.” It was interesting because when she read the post she had the sense that it was true but that she didn't even know where that stereotype came from (and certainly didn't fit her experience with her friend). She asks, what is the history behind the idea of Asian's being silent?She mentioned that Michael, in advocating for himself to his PhD cohort, suggested they watch the PBS documentary called “Asian Americans.” Maggie went and watched the first (of six) parts as well. Being from the Northwest there is so much Asian American History here, she says. When her family moved to Bainbridge Island she learned about the Japanese internment. One of the properties that her parents were looking at purchasing was previously a strawberry farm owned by Japanese farmers who were interned during WWII. To know the history of the land, that two irrigation ditches went unkept for so long that they connected at the ends forming a long lake with a long skinny island in the middle, was to have a deep sadness. She remarks that Bainbridge Island has done a phenomenal job of marking the history with a Japanese Internment Memorial (Nidoto Nai Yoni - Let It Not Happen Again) and also at the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum. She recalls a haunting set of pictures (in the museum) of the school house on Bainbridge the year before internment and the year after — a beautiful mix of diverse face before and the next year completely white.Michael feels like he wants to make a pilgrimage to Angel Island, outside of San Francisco. He didn't learn about it's history until recently.Danielle says they could have a whole conversation about Asian and Latinx history. She recently had her DNA done. She recalls a cousin who often received derogatory remarks about her eyes, racial slurs of Asian eyes. Her family would always say no, there is no Asian ancestry. Danielle would think that the cousin did indeed look like she could be Asian. [She mentions the book Brown Theology by Robert Chao Romero]. Well her DNA confirmed she (Danielle) does have a percentage of heritage from the Northern Philippines. She said, so it is there! Besides that, her DNA is a tour of colonialism. She said, that's a part of me and she wonders if what's in our bones, what we're attracted to, where we feel at home, is in the DNA. She gravitates towards her Asian brothers and sisters. She has always felt a kinship. Maybe there is some evidence.Michael says, yes the Chinese diaspora is vast! There could be more intersectionality between Latinx and AAPI communities. It would be worth doing a bit more research.Michael says AAPI, the term, has become a demographic term. It was invented in the 1960s as an activist term for Chinese and Japanese people join in during the Civil Rights movement. It was so they could have a collective term to take up this movement towards justice. But it has become a bland and/or meaningless term because Asian Americans are so diverse with something like 58 countries represented and just as many languages.And so it starts with the collective and then moves into particularity.Join us for part two...

Paula and Jill threw out the planned episode for this week because we felt so compelled to address the topic of police brutality and the mental health, religious, and spiritual implications. Join us for this rather impromptu and raw conversation where we struggle and ask questions such as: How can systems of power be held accountable? As followers of Jesus, how do we respond to oppression and injustice? We know that we cannot separate many incidents of police brutality from systemic racism and white supremacy, so where do we start? How can we support our siblings of color? You can find a number of resources for AntiRacism work on our website, www.sacredintersectionspodcast.com/anti-racism-resources Two social media accounts worthy of your attention: @Black Liturgies, the work of Cole Arthur Riley on facebook and instagram @privtoprog, Privilege to Progress on instagram We are grateful for our roadie listeners and the opportunity to be on this journey together! We would love to hear from you: your hopes and dreams for future episode topics, questions, Sacred intersections in your life, and anything else you'd like to share with us. You can interact with us in lots of ways: Our website: www.sacredintersectionspodcast.com Email: sacredintersectionspodcast@gmail.com Social Media: @sacredintersectionspodcast on Facebook and Instagram and @sacredpod on Twitter Also, we have merch! http://tee.pub/lic/sacredintersections --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Today, April 20, 2021, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges against him in causing the death of George Floyd. We have some brief considerations before the verdict after it had been announced that the verdict was about to be read. This recording includes the judge in the case reading the verdict and some brief prayers by Cole Arthur Riley on her “Black Liturgies” account.   God with us,  We thank you for being a God of true empathy, leaving status and security to come near to those you love - a nearness marked by healing, solidarity, and sacrifice. We have traded the fierceness of your empathy that might begin with tears but is also enmeshed with proximity to the hurting and the resolute doing of justice and mercy, even if that justice means loss of comfort and status for us. But keep us from being swallowed by the pain of those we love, that we would learn a compassion that has boundaries - a nearness that is not bondage. Let Empathy lay her head down each night on hope itself, rising with the deep knowledge that restoration is coming. We are the hands and feet of a promise.  Originally published March 26, 2021 @blackliturgies    

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer, liturgist, and speaker who is seeking a deeply contemplative life. She is the founder and writer of Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer. We will talk about all of that, and why prayer - during our conversation. Links from the Interview - For more on Cole's writing and her liturgies: https://blackliturgist.com/ - For all things Propaganda, head to: https://www.prophiphop.com/ -  The New Activist is presented by IJM: https://www.ijm.org/ The New Activist Social T - https://twitter.com/NewActivistIs FB - https://www.facebook.com/newactivistis/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/newactivistis/ web - http://www.newactivist.is Eddie Kaufholz, Host - https://twitter.com/edwardoreddie  

Continuing a series of conversations about how we are to live into the tension of Advent in this season, Rachael talks with Cole Arthur Riley—writer, speaker, and founder of the project Black Liturgies, “a project seeking to integrate the truths of Black dignity, lament, rage, justice, and rest into written prayers.” Throughout their conversation you'll hear about the role and function of liturgy, the radical trust of God in a woman's body, and practical ways we can lean into embodied practices this Advent season—including a guided breath prayer towards the end of the episode.    We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience listening to the podcast by filling out this quick, 10 minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TACPOD

This week we take a break from our ongoing Climate series to bring you an insightful conversation with Cole Arthur Riley, writer and creator of the popular Instagram account Black Liturgies. The interview, led by Claritas Blog Editor Kimberly St. Fleur, walks through the story behind Black Liturgies and covers topics ranging from lament, rage, tragedy, and a new vision for Christian hope. We hope that as we are wrapping up 2020 and going through this advent season, this conversation will uplift as well as convict us as we reflect on the hardships and trials of the past year. Catch our latest issue of the Claritas journal at www.cornellclaritas.com Follow us on Instagram or Facebook @cornellclaritas Thanks for listening!