“This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation & the Stories That Make Us” by Cole Arthur Riley

I want to tell you a story. Not just a story of my lived experience but a story that traces back through my people and honors the stories that made them before they made me. I want to tell a story as I weave it through stories as old as time, written in the days of sand and fire to be passed down through spoken whispers under the stars. I want to challenge the way my stories are linked to my connectedness, solidarity and the oppression of my sisters and brothers.

This creative rootedness planted in the art of storytelling is the foundation of Cole Arthur Riley’s incredible debut, “This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us”. Arthur Riley reminds us of the visceral and healing power of contemplative storytelling. Every sentence in this profound little book is written with her poet’s hand. And today, more than ever, hearing the story of an incredibly talented, deeply spiritual, chronically-ill black woman feels like the revealing of an ancient and powerful knowledge. In listening to her stories, I come to understand my world a little better and am inspired to tell my own.

I usually select books a little more “on the nose” for the Farewell Library Virtual Book Club. It is our space to gather in community and discuss death and grief through the lens of literature, after all. But this work deserves its place as February’s selection and I’m proud to lead a conversation on it this evening. Though death and grief aren’t often explicitly named, the essential truths we are asked to consider as we honor Arthur Riley’s stories stand upon the pillars of both.

If you’d like to join us to meet over Zoom and discuss tonight, DM or use the link in bio. If you’re curious about the book but can’t quite commit, head over the the author’s instagram account for micro-doses of her tender and radiant wisdom @blackliturgies .