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Black Liturgies book cover
Black Liturgies
Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human
2024
First Published
4.71
Average Rating
337
Number of Pages

A collection of prayer, poetry, and spiritual practice centering the Black interior world, from the New York Times bestselling author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies 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 new prayers, 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 what might be.

Avg Rating
4.71
Number of Ratings
755
5 STARS
76%
4 STARS
20%
3 STARS
3%
2 STARS
1%
1 STARS
0%
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Author

Cole Arthur Riley
Cole Arthur Riley
Author · 2 books

Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller, THIS HERE FLESH. 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. IG: @colearthurriley Twitter: @blackliturgist

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