2023-02-16
1 小时 6 分钟You don't even have the kind of courage to pursue liberation if you don't believe you're worthy to be free.
TOni Morrison actually said this, you know, being freed was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
And I knew, you know, if I'm really gonna in the end, talk about what it means to experience some kind of liberation, I have to start with this origin story of dignity.
So 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 seven years old.
And still her dad kept finding ways to, as she described it, bribe her to share her voice and nurture her creative impulse, often in writing from poems to stories and beyond.
And she began to develop a dual passion for contemplative spirituality and also the work of writers like Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, James Baldwin, Thomas Merton, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou and others.
And over time, as her expressive and creative voice really started to take shape, her lens on spirituality also yearned for a more expansive expression, one that moved beyond words and thoughts and traditions of the past and embodied more of her lived experience as a black queer woman who also found herself living with an autoimmune disease that manifested in illness, pain, and uncertainty.
And throughout this time, Cole also found inspiration and solace in liturgy.
But for her, it wasn't enough to read and contemplate the words and thoughts of others.
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.
And then she started sharing them on Instagram.
Under the moniker black liturgies.
Cole describes it as a space for black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage and rest.
Almost immediately, the project took off, growing into a global phenomenon with deep resonance far beyond her original intended audience.
I have found myself lost in her words so many times, invited to really think and feel both more deeply and expansively.
Her work then led to Coles debut book and New York Times bestseller, this here spirituality, liberation, and the stories that make us, which explore 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?