Join me this week for a fascinating conversation with the Rev. Dr. Jeania Ree Moore on romance novels, theology, and the religious lives of Black women (available wherever you listen to podcasts). If you enjoy our chat, please leave a review — it helps us reach more listeners. :)

Shownotes:

Dr. Moore’s dissertation, which you can read here, and her article,"The Religious Work of Beverly Jenkins's Black Historical Romance," published in vol. 14 of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies: https://www.jprstudies.org/2025/02/the-religious-work-of-beverly-jenkinss-black-historical-romance/.

Indigo, in the image, is one of the most critical works in Beverly Jenkins’s oeuvre and is uplifted and analyzed in Dr. Moore’s dissertation. However we did not discuss in this episode but stay tuned for a part 2!

We mention romance authors including Beverly Jenkins, Nalini Singh, and Tracey Livesay.

Two relevant interviews: Beverly Jenkins talking about editorial changes in tropes in an interview on the Black Romance Has a History podcast with Nicole Jackson and Steve Ammidown -- see episode — and Nalini Singh talking about the impact of fan mail in an interview on the Fated Mates podcast with Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop -- see episode.

Sources discussed in the episode: Jayashree Kamble, Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An Epistemology (2014); Margo Hendricks, Race and Romance: Coloring the Past (2022) (link to the open-access version of the book); Hsu-Ming Teo, Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (2012)

The book quoted from at the end is Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church by Barbara A. Holmes

And some other relevant works: ethicist Keri Day and her chapters on hope and on the erotic in her book Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism: Womanist and Black Feminist Perspectives; Catherine Roach -- the idea of romance as eschatology comes from Roach in her book Happily Ever After: The Romance Story in Popular Culture (2016); and Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power."

Thank you, dear listeners!

best,

Isra

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A fascinating conversation this month with Alia Jeraj about Muharram mourning songs, and the women who sing them. I hope you enjoy!

best,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

A very special episode this month on the embodied theologies of qawwali music with AR Malik. I hope you enjoy!

Some of the delightful musical pieces discussed:

Allah hi Jaane Kaun Bashar Hain (Aziz Mian)

Man Kunto Maula

A Beautiful Noise (Neil Diamond)

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A conversation with Safa Ahmed on Indian Muslim diaspora politics through and beyond Hindutva. I hope you enjoy — Eid Mubarak!

Links:

Abul Kalam Azad’s speech in front of Jama Masjid, 1947

An explainer on Hindutva 101, put together by Savera, a coalition of progressive and multifaith civil society organizations (including Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, and Sikhs

Sharjeel Imam on Islamic modernism, democracy, and the systemic exclusion of Muslims in India (letter from prison)

India: The Modi Question (the BBC’s documentary on Modi’s rise to power)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

Dear friends,

Happy Ramadan! Releasing a special seasonal podcast episode today featuring a conversation with Chaplain Leena Safi on the concept of shura, or relational care, in the Islamic tradition. Podcast episodes are also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I hope you enjoy!

best,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

Dear friends,

Today, we have a new episode of the Night Journey podcast featuring a conversation with writer and scholar Karis Ryu about world building, theology, and the secular. Podcast episodes are also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I hope you enjoy!

best,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

Dear friends,

Happy New Year! I present to you a new episode of the Night Journey podcast featuring a conversation with theologian and professor Martin Nguyen about theology and the creative process. Podcast episodes are also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I hope you enjoy!

best,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

Dear friends,

I hope you all are thriving! Sharing with you the next episode of the Night Journey podcast, in which I speak with my dear colleague and friend, Leanne Gale, about social justice lawyering, spirituality, and her work as a founding member of the New Haven anti-zionist synagogue Mending Minyan. Podcast episodes are now also available on Spotify. I hope you enjoy!

best,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com

Dear friends,

Happy August! The summer has come and gone, and I have been meaning to write to you this whole while. I have spent most of its humid expanse working very slowly on the very beginnings of a dissertation topic, and I’m afraid the terror of such a big undertaking, along with its many attendant meanings, have siphoned off a great deal of energy from me these past months and weeks. But the terror is subsiding, and I too am emerging, I hope, with more writing in the months to come.

In the meantime, however, I wanted to share a couple small offerings. First, I have a new article coming out on the recent history of American Muslim legal organizing and emerging political fractures therein. It has been a consuming project, and a joy to write — anyone who wants to read and would like access, please DM / email me!

Second, I am publishing above a rickety experiment in genre: a podcast conversation with Iman AbdoulKarim on the metaphysics of the black Muslim radical tradition, the topic of her research (and of shared fascination). Listen to us think together about the intertwinings of political activism and religious thought amongst black Muslim women thinkers, and what they help us understand about (constructive Islamic) theology. And please forgive the amateur technical features of this first attempt at the auditory medium.

With best wishes, and more soon,

Isra

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nightjourney.substack.com