Sharifa Stevens

Kay Daigle

Sharifa Stevens, author of When We Talk to God: Prayers and Poems for Black Women, talks with Kay Daigle about her book. Although it's written with black women in mind, any woman can identify with most of the feelings that permeate this beautiful book.

This is a book that prays women's feelings, as the Psalms do. There is something for each reader as Sharifa pours out her heart in these prayers and poems.

Recommended resources

sharifastevens.com

sharifahstevens.substack.com

Podcast series with Nika Spaulding: Understanding Lament & Practicing Lament

The Psalms

This episode is also available on video.

Timestamps:

00:20 Introduction to Sharifa & her book

01:39 Sharifa's heart for the book and how it came to be

08:03 How do you see women of other backgrounds connect to the poems & prayers?

10:08 What did you hope that black women of faith would take from your book?

11:31 Women are worthy to talk to God.

15:22 Some of the prayers may be challenging but no topic is off limits with God

16:35 How did you deal with reliving difficult experiences?

18:54 Sharifa shares a favorite, "Moving On Up."

22:26 Resources

TranscriptKay >> Hi. I'm Kay with Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries. Welcome to our podcast. Our guest today is actually one of our ministry team members, Sharifa Stevens. And today she is the one being interviewed rather than just one of our team members. So, Sharifa, it’s so great to see you as always.

Sharifa >> It's always a pleasure to see you, Kay.

Kay >> Now, Sharifa, according to her book, Sharifa is a writer, a poet, a speaker, and a singer. And it's all true.

Sharifa >> It's true.

This is going to be so fun!

Kay >> I don't know... I'm not quite sure why you think this is so funny. That's the wonderful things that you are.

Sharifa >> It is. It's wonderful.

Kay >> She looks so sad.

Sharifa >> I'm so sorry. I'm not. I'm so happy.

Kay >> Anyway, we won't talk about you anymore if it'll make you feel better.

Sharifa >> Okay.

Kay >> You can read Sharifa's entire bio on our site BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org. So today we are talking to Sharifa because she has a book, and it is beautiful. It is one of the prettiest books I've ever seen. And it is When We Talk to God: Prayers and Poems for Black Women.

So Sharifa, actually, I was just really blown away by your book, by the beauty of it, by so many of the poems and prayers in it.

It just really touched my heart in a lot of ways. It reminded me a lot of the psalms, which mean a whole lot to me, because you had a lot of raw emotion in there like the psalmist, and it all came from your heart. And there's no doubt about it. That kind of expressed your deepest thoughts. And, you know, just like the Psalms that give us words to pray when we don't know what to say to God.

I see your book is doing that for a lot of people there. There will be a lot of poems and prayers in here that will be very dear to many women who will read them and pray them over and over. I think, just like the Psalms, it will help people when they face difficulties be anchored in the Word when that happens.

Thank you for doing this.

Sharifa >> Thank you for those affirming words. And I am especially honored that you would draw a parallel to the Psalms because that was my goal. And I see the Bible as being so vivid and rich with emotional depth that it's not just an intellectual exercise to read the Bible. It is spiritual, and it's also emotional, and it reflects the fullness of God's love and of our humanity.

And so in the book, I wanted to reflect some of that back to the frankness and intimacy of the Psalms and the prophetic voice of the prophets, and the thirst for justice that echoes throughout the prophetic books, and also the playfulness of the Song of Solomon. They're just different beats in the Bible. There's history, there's lamentation, there's so much praise,