About the Author
Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space
where Black words of dignity, lament, rage, and rest, are curated
and integrated with a liberating spirituality. She serves as the
content and spiritual formation manager for Chesterton House: A
Center for Christian Studies at Cornell University. 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.
Reviews
At a time when establishing peace within one's own soul is so
vitally important, this book is a balm - reminding me to exercise
the spiritual muscle of awe, to notice the simple and to find
beauty in the ordinary.
-- Ben Lindsay, Author of We Need To Talk About Race
In
This Here Flesh, Cole Arthur Riley 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. Her personal anecdotes alongside Biblical anchors are
serene vehicles through which any reader will remember the
preciousness of their body, humanity, and most of all, their
dignity. -- Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of
THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING
This book is an invitation into the delicate weavings of family,
inheritance, and pain, how they mark a bloodline, and connect a
people.
Riley writes with all the grace and gravity the
spirit of humanity deserves. And somehow teaches us to think of
ourselves as deserving of such grace, along the way.
This is the
kind of book that make you different when you're done. --
Ashley C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author of SOMEBODY'S
DAUGHTER
This book is
breathtaking. Full of
profound
revelation and beauty woven into poetry,
unforgettable
imagery and story, it will stay with me long after I've read
it. I will keep returning to its pages, ready to hear in Cole
Arthur Riley's reflections new ways to see myself, my family, my
faith and my God. Who knew truth-telling could be so beautiful? --
Chine McDonald, author of GOD IS NOT A WHITE MAN
Welcome the rising of Cole Arthur Riley's astonishing voice. This
is
a gorgeous and muscular work. -- Krista Tippett, host of
On Being
Timeless.
This is a book I know I will return to again and
again. Through this work, I am reminded I am seen. I am
reminded I am free. -- Morgan Harper Nichols, artist and poet
Exquisite. . . Arthur Riley's writing is both
transporting and
hauntingly intimateas she narrates this important account of
generational inheritance. The stories and meditations in this book
are
sure to stay with you forever. -- Ayo Tometi, co-founder
of Black Lives Matter
Through a narrative of family and generation,
Cole Arthur Riley
speaks of a Blackness so beautiful it can't be contained and a
liberation that is present and possible.
This Here Flesh
is an invitation to hold space, return home and rediscover joy. --
Amena Brown, poet, author, and host of HER with Amena Brown
podcast
Beautiful. Soul-stirring. . . we rediscover a sense of
awe for
the bodies that make us, the stories that ground us, and the
delicate grace that enlivens our spirits. -- Kate Bowler,
New York Times bestselling author of NO CURE FOR BEING HUMAN
This Here Flesh is
a gospel to what we remember. This
book is rigorous, joyous, complex, honest and tells the story of
how we get free.
It is a story that would not let me go. --
Dante Stewart, author of SHOUTIN' IN THE FIRE
[A] wonderfully
winsome, heartbreakingly honest, and ever-poetic
work of spiritual biography and theological reflection. While
some theologians will talk in the abstract about 'incarnation,'
'enfleshment,' or 'embodiment,' Arthur Riley's book is a lesson in
concreteness, in Black theology, in seeing a body, being a body,
being a person rooted in time, space, stories, and very particular
flesh. * Library Journal (starred review) *
A multi-layered, moving and often a poetic exploration of faith,
lament, community and much more. * Keep the Faith *
