Dear Soft Black Woman

Today I am joined by Iresha Picot, M.Ed, LBS.

Iresha is a Licensed Behavior Specialist and Therapist. A Philly transplant by way of Virginia, Iresha is the co-editor of the book, "The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives", and has written articles in the Research in the Teaching of English, The Philadelphia Weekly, Elephant Journal, Aunt Chloe’s Journal, Specter Magazine, and For Harriet. She has also been featured in NPR, NBC, WHYY, Bicycle Magazine and PBS American Portraits. Iresha recently directed her first short film with Love Now Media, called the “The Do-Over”, which centers a story on trauma and triumph. She has worked with the “Me Too” movement on their survivors healing series. Iresha hosted a digital show called “Sis, are you good?” series with Girltrek, INC that digitally centered Mental Health check-ins with Black Women.

Social Media: @Ireshadahoodtherapist

At the time of this recording, Iresha was reading:

Her go to books recommendations for healing work:

Thank you for listening to Dear Soft Black Woman. You can support this podcast via agentlelanding.substack.com

You can find Rose on IG / Twitter / rosejpercy.com

Hello!

Dear Soft Black Woman is  back, and continuing to explore rest as vocation.

Everyone is welcomed to subscribe to "A Gentle Landing," which has options for paid and free subscriptions.

Black women+femmes are welcome to request to join our DearSBW Mighty Network, for private community conversations, events, and resources.

How are you and who are you becoming? Join the conversation.

About the host:
Rose J. Percy (she/her) is a Haitian-American womanist theopoet.  She hosts a podcast called “Dear Soft Black Woman.” Rose also co-creates sacred spaces at Quni Community.  Her work engages theologies of imagination, critical pedagogy, and Black literature, to birth spaces for rest, belonging, and community care. Rose holds a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology, where she is currently studying spiritual formation. Rose was born in Les Cayes, Ayïti, and raised in Pawtucket, RI. She resides in Boston, MA.

You can purchase the Truth's Table book here at the "Dear Soft Black Woman" Bookshop. 

ABOUT TRUTH’S TABLE

Once upon a time, an activist (Michelle), a theologian (Ekemini), and a psychologist (Christina) walked into a group chat. Everything was laid out on the table: Dating. Politics. The Black church. Pop culture. Soon, other Black women began pulling up chairs to gather round. And so, the Truth’s Table podcast was born.



In their literary debut, co-hosts Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins, and Ekemini Uwan offer stories by Black women and for Black women examining theology, politics, race, culture, and gender matters through a Christian lens. For anyone seeking to explore the spiritual dimensions of hot-button issues within the church, or anyone thirsty to deepen their faith, Truth’s Table provides exactly the survival guide we need, including:



• Michelle Higgins’s unforgettable treatise revealing the way “racial reconciliation” is a spiritually bankrupt, empty promise that can often drain us of the ability to do real justice work

• Ekemini Uwan’s exploration of Blackness as the image of God in the past, present, and future

• Christina Edmondson’s reimagination of what a more just and liberating form of church discipline might look like—one that acknowledges and speaks to the trauma in the room



These essays deliver a compelling theological re-education and pair the spiritual formation and political education necessary for Black women of faith.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Christina Edmondson (@DrCEdmondson) is an educator. She holds a PhD in counseling psychology and an MS in family therapy. A certified cultural intelligence facilitator with experience in nonprofit, higher education, and corporate sectors, Dr. Edmondson often consults with organizations about diversity and equity, as well as mental health and faith issues. Her work and insights have been covered in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Essence, and CBS News.



Ekemini Uwan (@sista_theology) is a public theologian who received her MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary. Uwan is a contributing member of the Aspen Institute’s Racial Justice and Religion Commission. She has appeared on MSNBC and NPR. Her writings have been published in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and HuffPost Black Voices, and her insights have been quoted by CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker.



Michelle Higgins (@Afrorising) is senior pastor of Saint John’s Church (The Beloved Community) in St. Louis, where she co-founded Faith for Justice, a collective of Christian activists, and serves as board chair of Action St. Louis, a political home for Black communities in the St. Louis region.

In this conversation we have:

Khristi Lauren Adams is a speaker, author, youth advocate and ordained Baptist minister.  Khristi is the author of Parable of the Brown Girl which is published by Fortress Press and released February 2020. The book highlights the cultural and spiritual truths that emerge from the lives of young black girls. Parable of the Brown Girl has received awards for Best Young Adult Book from The African American Literary Awards and the New York Black Librarians Caucus. She is currently working on her next book, Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way. (Spring, 2022) with Broadleaf Books and a middle grade version of the book with Beaming Books. She works as Dean of Spiritual Life & Equity at the Hill School. Khristi is also an instructor of Religious Studies at the Hill School. She is the Founder & Director of “The Becoming Conference”, an annual conference and leadership cohort designed to empower, educate & inspire girls between the ages of 13-18. Khristi is a graduate of Temple University with a degree in Advertising and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary where she obtained a Master of Divinity degree. Khristi is an alum of the 2017 class of Lead New Jersey, a select group of fellows participating in a year-long program designed to educate, transform, and empower the next generation of leaders from the public, social, and private sectors. She also currently sits on the advisory board for Word Made Flesh, a non-profit organization existing to serve among the most vulnerable of the world’s poor.

You can learn more about Khristi through her website, https://khristilaurenadams.com. You can follow her on Twitter / Instagram

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You can support this podcast through:  Patreon

Substack Newsletter: A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy

Find Rose on the internet:  IG \ Twitter \ Website

Christena Cleveland Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the  Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation.

A weaver of Black liberation and the sacred feminine, Dr. Cleveland integrates psychology, theology, storytelling, and art to stimulate our spiritual imaginations. She recently completed her third full-length book, God is a Black Woman (HarperOne), which details her 400-mile walking pilgrimage across central France in search of ancient Black Madonna statues, and examines the relationship among race, gender, and cultural perceptions of the Divine. 

Click here to read more of Dr. Cleveland's bio & support her work. 

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You can support this podcast through:  Patreon

Substack Newsletter: "A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy

Find Rose on the internet:  IG \ Twitter \ Website

Ylisse is a soft Black woman who loves swimming, cycling, sleeping, and sunshine. Ylisse works as a chaplain supporting people through times of transition. In a prickly and harsh world, Ylisse loves collaborating with people committed to rest, joy, and cultivating gentle spaces for themselves and others.

Do you need help figuring out what kind of rest you need? Here are some resources:

• On 7 Different Types of Rest. https://www.wellandgood.com/types-of-rest/


• Take this rest quiz to determine what kind of rest you need. https://www.restquiz.com/quiz/rest-quiz-test/

How to support:  Patreon

Find Rose on the internet:  IG \  FB \ Twitter \ Website

Substack Newsletter: "A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy"

Ylisse is a soft Black woman who loves swimming, cycling, sleeping, and sunshine. Ylisse works as a chaplain supporting people through times of transition. In a prickly and harsh world, Ylisse loves collaborating with people committed to rest, joy, and cultivating gentle spaces for themselves and others.

Do you need help figuring out what kind of rest you need? Here are some resources:

How to support:  Patreon

Find Rose on the internet:  IG \  FB \ Twitter \ Website

Substack Newsletter: "A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy" 

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

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Find Rose on the internet:  IG \  FB \ Twitter \ Website

How to support:  Patreon

I just launched a newsletter called "A Gentle Landing w/ Rose J. Percy" (Subscription fee optional)

Thank y'all so much for your patience! We are back with another episode featuring my poet-friend and fellow Lucille Clifton fan, Kelsey Johnson! 

Kelsey Johnson is a poet, actor and educator committed to following Jesus, clinging to joy, tending to her community and telling stories through poetry, theatre and music. When she's not acting, writing or teaching she can be found reading, laughing, singing old spirituals in honor of her grandmother and getting lost in the woods. 

You can follow Kelsey on Instagram as @freedoms_daughter.

Click here to read the poem "Today, God" by Starr Davis.

Just wanna thank our patrons who make this work possible! You can click here to join this glorious group of people and see my Patreon offerings. 

To view more of my public work, please visit https://www.rosejpercy.com/links.

Special honor to bell hooks, who passed December 15, 2021. I am thankful to you for making my work possible, and I hope to live in gratitude for the ways your work has affirmed my breath and being. Thank you, bell hooks.

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Questions: 

1. bell hooks tenderly describes her relationship with Paulo Freire and his teachings in Teaching to Transgress. Similarly, how has Freire's work impacted you?

2. Explain how you arrived at the understanding of "rest as vocation"?

3. Praxis is an important part of critical pedagogy. Beyond conversations, what does praxis look like for DSBW?

4. As this conversation grows and more voices join in, what are your hopes for the soft black woman listening? What do you want to see for us? 

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A question for you:

What does a praxis (action and reflection) of softness look like for you? 

Please feel free to engage this question on Patreon, Spotify,  IG , FB , or Twitter 

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Sources Mentioned:

• Charlene A. Carruthers: Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. 


• Lucille Clifton: How to Carry Water: Selected Poems. ed by Aracelis Grimay. You can read to "won't you celebrate me" here.


• Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed.


• Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the City.


• bell hooks: Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. 


• bell hooks: Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope.


• Patrick B. Reyes: Nobody Cries When We Die: God, Community and Surviving to Adulthood. 


• Chanequa Walker-Barnes: Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength.