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.
"This is the
kind of book that makes you different when you're done."--Ashley
C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Somebody's
Daughter
"Reaches
deep beneath the surface of words unspoken, wounds unhealed, and
secrets untempered to break them open in order for fresh light to
break through."--Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling
author of This Will Be My
Undoing and Caul Baby
"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.