Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A collection of prayer, poetry, and spiritual practice centering the Black interior world, from the author Cole Arthur Riley.

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.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Convergent Books (January 16, 2024)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.69 x 1.11 x 8.52 inches