WEBVTT 00:00.171 --> 00:10.719 [SPEAKER_00]: This episode of True's Table is brought to you by our NAACP Image Award-nominated book, True's Table, Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. 00:11.140 --> 00:12.641 [SPEAKER_00]: Get it where all books are sold. 00:16.150 --> 00:17.491 [SPEAKER_02]: Brothers, y'all all right. 00:17.872 --> 00:21.115 [SPEAKER_02]: If this is your first time at truth's table, welcome to the table. 00:21.315 --> 00:23.837 [SPEAKER_02]: And you've been sitting at the table with us all these years. 00:24.118 --> 00:27.260 [SPEAKER_02]: We are so grateful that you have been listening to us through these years. 00:27.341 --> 00:33.787 [SPEAKER_02]: And we are inviting you to partner with us and support our work at patreon.com slash truth's table. 00:34.087 --> 00:37.070 [SPEAKER_02]: Now pull up a chair and have a seat at the table with us. 00:37.850 --> 00:39.272 [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, y'all, welcome to truth's table. 00:39.292 --> 00:40.793 [SPEAKER_02]: May you guys a culture for grace and truth. 00:40.933 --> 00:41.374 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm a community. 00:41.874 --> 00:42.575 [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Christina. 00:43.135 --> 00:45.716 [SPEAKER_02]: This table is five black women and four black women. 00:45.736 --> 00:46.717 [SPEAKER_02]: So welcome to the table. 00:46.757 --> 00:47.938 [SPEAKER_02]: See how you're doing. 00:48.558 --> 00:50.059 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, welcome to you to the table. 00:50.079 --> 00:50.519 [SPEAKER_00]: I have to do it. 00:50.559 --> 00:50.999 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. 00:51.099 --> 00:51.880 [SPEAKER_00]: How are you today? 00:54.261 --> 00:56.022 [SPEAKER_02]: Girl, I am good. 00:56.042 --> 00:56.923 [SPEAKER_02]: I am good. 00:57.023 --> 00:59.804 [SPEAKER_02]: I have some allergies, you know? 00:59.824 --> 01:02.606 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you have allergies or do allergies? 01:02.646 --> 01:03.106 [SPEAKER_02]: Have allergies. 01:03.226 --> 01:04.267 [SPEAKER_02]: The allergies have me. 01:04.487 --> 01:05.848 [SPEAKER_00]: The allergies now. 01:05.908 --> 01:07.369 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't have to go and confess it. 01:07.429 --> 01:07.789 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't come. 01:07.849 --> 01:08.710 [SPEAKER_00]: No. 01:08.770 --> 01:09.850 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, you're right. 01:11.790 --> 01:12.431 [SPEAKER_02]: They do have me. 01:12.451 --> 01:17.435 [SPEAKER_02]: That's why I'm a little bit more, you know, a little bit more bad today, because I was like, you know what, these are just, they kick it. 01:17.575 --> 01:18.055 [SPEAKER_02]: They kick it. 01:18.315 --> 01:19.616 [SPEAKER_00]: So I know, I know. 01:19.697 --> 01:31.706 [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, there's all kinds of CO in spheracy, conspiracy theory, about what's happening with the allergens in the environment, you know, desperate times make you eager to adopt conspiracy theory. 01:31.786 --> 01:33.288 [SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to be clear about that. 01:33.388 --> 01:36.911 [SPEAKER_00]: So I've heard some things about what's happening with the trees. 01:37.031 --> 01:39.253 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's true, but it was right. 01:41.603 --> 01:42.905 [SPEAKER_02]: And wrong at the same time. 01:43.565 --> 01:44.947 [SPEAKER_02]: So many conspiracies. 01:45.247 --> 01:45.808 [SPEAKER_00]: So many. 01:45.848 --> 01:46.769 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sorry. 01:46.809 --> 01:55.258 [SPEAKER_00]: I have not, you know, you know, I've got a whole, we didn't have a episode about what you'll do about the allergies because I really think. 01:55.278 --> 01:56.400 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's a problem. 01:56.420 --> 02:01.586 [SPEAKER_00]: I think we could actually have a whole conversation, but we certainly need to take our allergy issues to the Lord and prayer. 02:01.706 --> 02:02.487 [SPEAKER_00]: And today. 02:03.047 --> 02:11.333 [SPEAKER_00]: And today, we have a woman of God with us today who has given us a whole book of all the things that we as black women. 02:11.373 --> 02:13.034 [SPEAKER_00]: We have a behind the book episode. 02:19.098 --> 02:25.965 [SPEAKER_02]: about when we talk to God, and we have the author here, the table Shreepa Steven. 02:26.426 --> 02:27.607 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, pretty. 02:27.727 --> 02:35.515 [SPEAKER_02]: When we talk to God, prayers, poems for black women, you better name your audience. 02:35.595 --> 02:36.957 [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the table Shreepa. 02:36.997 --> 02:37.778 [SPEAKER_02]: How are you, sis? 02:38.458 --> 02:40.559 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm so happy to be here. 02:40.579 --> 02:42.120 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for coming making time. 02:42.141 --> 02:43.181 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for writing this book. 02:43.201 --> 02:44.322 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for this offering. 02:44.342 --> 02:45.583 [SPEAKER_01]: It is beautiful. 02:45.603 --> 02:47.644 [SPEAKER_02]: Do you make this get into, I mean, it's just 02:59.832 --> 03:10.397 [SPEAKER_02]: I just love, I mean, there are so many themes that you write about in this book, but I am struck by the artwork before we even move it into the context. 03:10.857 --> 03:17.359 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm talking about the artwork in the artistry, and I mean, who was the illustrator? 03:17.479 --> 03:19.660 [SPEAKER_02]: How did you perfect that? 03:19.740 --> 03:23.042 [SPEAKER_02]: Because it can be a battle sometimes with the publishers. 03:23.722 --> 03:28.625 [SPEAKER_02]: about how your cover's going to look and how you want people to feel when they pick up the book. 03:28.645 --> 03:33.227 [SPEAKER_02]: Can you talk to us about the illustrate how to how did this beautiful book come to be? 03:33.387 --> 03:33.647 [UNKNOWN]: Okay? 03:33.667 --> 03:34.828 [SPEAKER_01]: Because it is gorgeous. 03:35.408 --> 03:42.232 [SPEAKER_01]: It is gorgeous and I I want to take this moment to just thank God for that because it was not a battle. 03:42.932 --> 03:45.353 [SPEAKER_01]: There were no battles over this cover. 03:45.613 --> 03:46.174 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:46.194 --> 03:46.834 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:46.854 --> 03:47.794 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:47.814 --> 03:48.234 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:48.835 --> 03:49.115 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:49.135 --> 03:49.395 [SPEAKER_01]: That's great. 03:49.955 --> 03:52.316 [SPEAKER_01]: And it is the generosity of God. 03:52.336 --> 03:55.258 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to name the illustrator. 03:55.498 --> 03:56.858 [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Camila Ru. 03:57.559 --> 03:58.239 [SPEAKER_01]: Come on. 03:58.439 --> 04:04.342 [SPEAKER_01]: He is out of the United Kingdom, but she has been involved in ancestry. 04:05.763 --> 04:09.225 [SPEAKER_01]: She was the first interpreter of this book. 04:09.845 --> 04:10.326 [SPEAKER_01]: Wow. 04:10.346 --> 04:22.374 [SPEAKER_01]: So when we conceived of this book, it was always meant to have a graphic and artwork element to it. 04:23.855 --> 04:28.778 [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to choose Camilla Ru as the illustrator. 04:29.459 --> 04:33.121 [SPEAKER_01]: And I am so in awe of her work. 04:34.704 --> 04:55.500 [SPEAKER_01]: and not only the aesthetic beauty of it, not only the regality of it, but also the way that she was able to deftly and succinctly interpret the poems and prayers through her artwork so that those of us who open the book who are visual 04:57.408 --> 04:57.888 [SPEAKER_01]: We get it. 04:59.369 --> 05:01.090 [SPEAKER_01]: Before we open the book, we get it. 05:01.110 --> 05:06.332 [SPEAKER_01]: And publisher was also, they also went above and beyond. 05:06.352 --> 05:12.515 [SPEAKER_01]: And some of these details, I love the gilded nature of this book. 05:12.735 --> 05:18.578 [SPEAKER_01]: I love that there is gold on the cover that there is gold behind. 05:21.482 --> 05:22.944 [SPEAKER_01]: We, it's beautiful. 05:23.164 --> 05:25.287 [SPEAKER_02]: We deserve beautiful things. 05:25.587 --> 05:26.168 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we do. 05:26.669 --> 05:27.430 [SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely. 05:27.750 --> 05:30.774 [SPEAKER_02]: And let me tell you a little something about Sharifah Stevens. 05:31.154 --> 05:33.978 [SPEAKER_02]: She is a writer, poet, speaker, and singer. 05:34.078 --> 05:40.186 [SPEAKER_02]: She is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants born and raised in New York and currently resides with her family in Dallas, Texas. 05:40.526 --> 05:49.753 [SPEAKER_02]: She graduated from Columbia University in New York with a Bouchy Illus degree in African-American Studies before earning a master's at theology from Dallas theological seminary. 05:50.053 --> 05:56.037 [SPEAKER_02]: Sharifa aspires to use writing as a vehicle that moves readers to intersect with the sacred and the honest. 05:56.458 --> 06:04.884 [SPEAKER_02]: She's co-authored only like can do that and contributed to the books, vindicating the Vixen's, Rally, and the craze of coming set me free. 06:05.264 --> 06:07.466 [SPEAKER_02]: Sharifa is married to a Renaissance man. 06:07.986 --> 06:10.733 [SPEAKER_02]: And there's a mother to two lively boys. 06:11.775 --> 06:12.557 [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the table. 06:12.597 --> 06:13.900 [SPEAKER_02]: She'll be for welcome sister. 06:14.301 --> 06:14.622 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. 06:17.308 --> 06:17.528 [SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead. 06:18.409 --> 06:41.060 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, one of the things that I'm so glad to give me that you brought up like the just the beauty and the aesthetic quality of this book, but there's another feature I think of the artwork is that so many of the things that you are capturing and bringing to God and prayer and helping us to bring in God and prayer, it feels like because of the artwork, because of the color, because of the images, because of the women that are in the pages that 06:41.550 --> 06:43.613 [SPEAKER_00]: When I'm praying, I am not alone. 06:44.354 --> 06:49.342 [SPEAKER_00]: So the book feels artistically to me, communal. 06:50.203 --> 06:55.751 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's just a, I don't know if that was intentional or not, but we are selling how y'all need to get this book. 06:56.625 --> 07:03.287 [SPEAKER_00]: to experience it, but also what's even better than just the invitation that the artistry lets you into. 07:03.387 --> 07:10.469 [SPEAKER_00]: It's the beauty and the depth and the relatability of these prayers that are about real life, Sharifah. 07:10.549 --> 07:12.149 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh my goodness, real life. 07:12.189 --> 07:13.950 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was looking at that table of contents. 07:13.990 --> 07:16.190 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and let me go on over to this pair of menopause. 07:18.711 --> 07:23.294 [SPEAKER_00]: That's the street we're walking on, walking down my nest and breaking the glass ceiling. 07:23.334 --> 07:25.235 [SPEAKER_00]: Hello, we need to move through. 07:25.735 --> 07:26.836 [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about some relevant. 07:27.476 --> 07:29.537 [SPEAKER_02]: No, my day is a magnificent. 07:29.597 --> 07:35.120 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, when the braids are too big and sometimes they are, what you're going to do? 07:35.140 --> 07:36.361 [SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to take them out. 07:36.861 --> 07:37.221 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. 07:37.241 --> 07:37.962 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take them out. 07:43.310 --> 07:46.992 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for saying that the book is called when we talk to God. 07:47.292 --> 07:47.752 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. 07:48.092 --> 07:55.596 [SPEAKER_01]: So I love that you emphasize the communal aspect of it because prayer is individual, but it's also corporate. 07:56.036 --> 08:07.601 [SPEAKER_01]: And that is, I'm taking my blueprint from the scriptures, which so many times, even in the Greek we miss out on how corporate the every you is, 08:09.042 --> 08:17.388 [SPEAKER_01]: in the epistles and the gospels, there's so many more corporate use that are individual ones. 08:17.589 --> 08:22.152 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we can see that with the one another,ness of someone's eyes. 08:22.853 --> 08:31.539 [SPEAKER_01]: But that bringing in that familial corporate act of the gospel is something that 08:33.561 --> 08:37.626 [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to make sure it was succinctly stated in as many ways as possible. 08:37.646 --> 08:39.349 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's awesome. 08:40.094 --> 09:03.581 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, Sharif, I'm curious about your own, I mean, so many questions because I'm curious about your own faith formation and what brought you to this juncture or to this point in your life where you could write a book of this caliber that says, you know, that is, or have the audacity, right, in the boldness and confidence. 09:03.661 --> 09:05.782 [SPEAKER_02]: I said, the godly confidence to write a book. 09:07.762 --> 09:09.704 [SPEAKER_02]: on behalf of Black women, right? 09:09.964 --> 09:18.412 [SPEAKER_02]: That speaks, you know, and captures the voice, the tenor, the concerns, the frivolities, you know, there's some opinions. 09:18.613 --> 09:27.000 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I wonder about your own formation and like how what brought you to this point in your life where you felt you could write a book like this. 09:27.381 --> 09:31.184 [SPEAKER_02]: In other words, could you have written this book ten years ago? 09:32.165 --> 09:42.651 [SPEAKER_02]: or fifteen years ago, who was sure even now that that empowered you to enable you to be able to put pen to paper and write when we talk to go. 09:44.292 --> 09:47.094 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, that's a really good question. 09:47.114 --> 09:56.539 [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll first of all, I'm grown now in a way that I wasn't ten years ago and 09:58.468 --> 10:01.329 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll be more grown in ten years, god willing, right? 10:02.349 --> 10:14.393 [SPEAKER_01]: But the seeds of faith and the seeds of artistry have been so enemy, I stand on shoulders, just like you stand on shoulders. 10:16.693 --> 10:20.034 [SPEAKER_01]: And so poetry, I'm from the Bronx, okay? 10:20.494 --> 10:21.915 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm from the cradle of hip-hop. 10:23.510 --> 10:25.971 [SPEAKER_01]: So hip-hop is my inheritance. 10:26.531 --> 10:35.554 [SPEAKER_01]: And I grew up in a time where I was reading my Anjilu and Tony Marsin when I was ten years old. 10:36.474 --> 10:40.415 [SPEAKER_01]: And God bless the teachers, the educators who introduced me to these women. 10:41.383 --> 10:55.125 [SPEAKER_01]: because they spoke with such clarity, with such strength and emotional depth and with dignity, where being a black woman was not an apology. 10:55.145 --> 11:05.967 [SPEAKER_01]: And they were so seringly truthful about the times that they lived in, and were serious about joy. 11:05.987 --> 11:09.068 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was a seed sewn in me 11:10.267 --> 11:15.190 [SPEAKER_01]: And when I went to school, we had to recite links and cues. 11:15.330 --> 11:18.752 [SPEAKER_01]: We had to recite still I rise from my Angelou. 11:19.152 --> 11:25.336 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a seed song in me at the same time as my spiritual formation started to grow. 11:25.856 --> 11:30.659 [SPEAKER_01]: My grandmother lived with us until I was thirteen. 11:32.240 --> 11:34.802 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we were roommates because you know that's 11:35.785 --> 11:36.065 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 11:36.466 --> 11:39.387 [SPEAKER_01]: That's just part of living in a multi-generational household. 11:39.407 --> 11:41.128 [SPEAKER_03]: That's right. 11:41.469 --> 11:48.333 [SPEAKER_01]: And a household that had immigrants who were getting their papers, just all of that. 11:48.833 --> 11:49.894 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, all of that jazz. 11:49.914 --> 12:04.323 [SPEAKER_01]: So I grew up so close to my grandmother who was a survivor of sexual assault, who I didn't know 12:07.046 --> 12:09.687 [SPEAKER_01]: who's mastectomy bras. 12:09.847 --> 12:12.247 [SPEAKER_01]: I would play with him when I was seven years old. 12:12.707 --> 12:14.788 [SPEAKER_01]: So she was a survivor of breast cancer. 12:16.008 --> 12:19.829 [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, as a whole other story, like, but she survived. 12:20.149 --> 12:26.290 [SPEAKER_01]: She survived and her survival was so tied to her God. 12:31.971 --> 12:36.592 [SPEAKER_01]: Her rhythms were her hands in the morning and evening. 12:37.099 --> 12:43.725 [SPEAKER_01]: and her kneeling by her bedside and opening her pival. 12:45.446 --> 12:49.430 [SPEAKER_01]: Reading it, and sometimes her prayers were silent and sometimes they were allowed. 12:50.210 --> 12:51.491 [SPEAKER_01]: They were so consistent. 12:54.792 --> 13:00.514 [SPEAKER_01]: There's so much that I owe to the example, the everyday example of my grandmother. 13:00.534 --> 13:02.374 [SPEAKER_01]: I understand. 13:03.334 --> 13:07.595 [SPEAKER_01]: So she was a part of my formation. 13:09.016 --> 13:20.579 [SPEAKER_01]: And her faith was later challenged by another kind of her minutic, so to speak, I went to seminary. 13:23.334 --> 13:24.055 [SPEAKER_01]: And you named it. 13:24.876 --> 13:40.436 [SPEAKER_01]: So in seminary, I was taught that worship and study and music should look one way and that way did not look like my grandmother. 13:42.433 --> 13:49.216 [SPEAKER_01]: and coming from a background of African American studies in New York City. 13:51.077 --> 14:04.104 [SPEAKER_01]: My existence was at odds with my seminary education at many segments, which was challenging. 14:04.264 --> 14:11.868 [SPEAKER_01]: It was challenging to exist embodied and exist holding onto my dignity in the space. 14:13.932 --> 14:17.513 [SPEAKER_01]: I did it, but it cost. 14:19.194 --> 14:32.537 [SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, fifteen years ago, I think I would be loath to write a book with just us as the audience. 14:33.158 --> 14:35.718 [SPEAKER_01]: And I just us, I'll put that in quotes. 14:37.959 --> 14:41.680 [SPEAKER_01]: Because my job was to be an ambassador for all, 14:42.983 --> 14:55.406 [SPEAKER_01]: and to be the best representative of my race and gender that I could be and to perform being a bridge and to enjoy being walked over. 14:59.047 --> 15:07.509 [SPEAKER_01]: Since those days and a company we met during a powder keg moment. 15:11.665 --> 15:17.028 [SPEAKER_01]: And that powder kick moment was with a sister organization that I worked for. 15:17.048 --> 15:40.943 [SPEAKER_01]: And that was a really clarifying moment for me, where I don't know about y'all, but I'd come to a point where I would rather eat beans and rice for years than be employed in a place 15:42.758 --> 15:48.519 [SPEAKER_01]: that made me suffer and called it, called a godly. 15:51.800 --> 15:55.981 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I reached that place in that time. 15:57.622 --> 16:00.722 [SPEAKER_01]: And since then, I just, we praise God. 16:01.043 --> 16:09.385 [SPEAKER_01]: We haven't had beans and rice years, but he has provided for us, but I had to change my tack and recover. 16:11.315 --> 16:17.358 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that this book is a part of my recovery. 16:17.378 --> 16:21.660 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 16:25.002 --> 16:28.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so beautifully say that you know, you should be a writer. 16:30.544 --> 16:32.886 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. 16:33.726 --> 16:35.667 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. 16:35.727 --> 16:39.169 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and more importantly than what we say, like it's you have to believe what you say. 16:40.410 --> 16:41.030 [SPEAKER_00]: Great. 16:41.070 --> 16:42.391 [SPEAKER_00]: We fought beyond performance. 16:42.411 --> 16:43.931 [SPEAKER_00]: You need to be true. 16:44.111 --> 16:48.032 [SPEAKER_00]: And I, in you invited us into the sacred truth of these prayers. 16:48.533 --> 16:49.933 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what struck me about this. 16:49.953 --> 16:53.594 [SPEAKER_00]: So I, you know, I come from a, I was raising the progressive Baptist Church. 16:53.614 --> 16:58.356 [SPEAKER_00]: So Black Baptist Church tradition well integrated with justice. 16:58.376 --> 16:58.856 [SPEAKER_00]: There is no 16:59.616 --> 17:05.238 [SPEAKER_00]: There's no distance between the expectation of holiness and justice, at least how I was raised. 17:06.159 --> 17:18.264 [SPEAKER_00]: But my pastor, who I grew up under who baptized me, had like the seminal work, got a rest of Soul Herald Carter, senior, on prayer in the Black Church tradition. 17:18.304 --> 17:20.205 [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a seminal academic work on that. 17:20.545 --> 17:27.388 [SPEAKER_00]: And as a kid, I didn't realize that, but prayer was so central to the experience of my local church. 17:28.788 --> 17:39.231 [SPEAKER_00]: And while the preaching and the music and all of those things were incredibly powerful, there was something special and set apart about this conversation with God that's coming right into the room with us. 17:40.332 --> 17:45.073 [SPEAKER_00]: And I remember those prayers feeling like they were just bubbling up from just somewhere in a person. 17:45.093 --> 17:45.913 [SPEAKER_00]: There was no paper. 17:45.953 --> 17:47.173 [SPEAKER_00]: There was nothing written down. 17:47.554 --> 17:52.395 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm thinking about how I'm thinking about the act of writing down your prayers. 17:54.505 --> 18:00.187 [SPEAKER_00]: Especially for those of us who come from traditions where we may actually have in the back of our heads like you can't write down your prayer. 18:00.427 --> 18:01.428 [SPEAKER_00]: Like what's going on right now. 18:02.328 --> 18:16.595 [SPEAKER_00]: And so talk about talk about the decision to take what God has given you in communication with God and putting it on paper, especially for those who might have been raised in this tradition like mine, like I've never hardly ever write down prayers and surprises people. 18:17.315 --> 18:23.377 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I think, but these are so beautiful and they feel like they're just being spoken out of your mouth that they're not on the page. 18:23.437 --> 18:25.838 [SPEAKER_00]: And so yeah, talk about that for people like me. 18:26.678 --> 18:27.079 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. 18:27.619 --> 18:33.681 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, for people like you as long as you're praying, that's that's when I'm 18:34.579 --> 18:38.104 [SPEAKER_01]: My goal is connection with the living God. 18:38.124 --> 18:41.288 [SPEAKER_01]: So I applaud that. 18:41.949 --> 18:45.815 [SPEAKER_01]: Also, I, everybody don't want to write down their prayers. 18:45.855 --> 18:50.201 [SPEAKER_01]: That's not everybody's ministry, but I feel called to 18:52.542 --> 18:59.487 [SPEAKER_01]: encourage women who may not think that they have the words that they do, that they do. 19:00.548 --> 19:11.055 [SPEAKER_01]: So I want this book to be permission to pray as you, as you are led with your words, with the words that come out of your mouth. 19:11.635 --> 19:18.060 [SPEAKER_01]: I want people who don't get have the prayers to pray to have this book as a catalyst. 19:19.400 --> 19:29.907 [SPEAKER_01]: I also think that I have precedents for written prayers because my Savior has his prayers written in the Bible. 19:30.367 --> 19:30.747 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen. 19:30.907 --> 19:31.988 [SPEAKER_01]: And he's not the only one. 19:32.989 --> 19:39.093 [SPEAKER_01]: The prophets do the Psalmists do many regular 19:39.773 --> 20:03.332 [SPEAKER_01]: regular men and women who were in the narrative have their prayers written as well and not only that we have a cloud of witnesses because the whole Christian history is my inheritance and so we have church mothers and church fathers who also wrote down their prayers for our benefit 20:06.468 --> 20:18.911 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I understand a discomfort because there is a sense of spontaneity that can come with praying and should be, should be, I'm not against that. 20:19.751 --> 20:26.852 [SPEAKER_01]: But there is also an hour collective inheritance, a rich history of written prayers. 20:28.533 --> 20:34.514 [SPEAKER_01]: Lastly, I really hope that this is not just a document 20:35.702 --> 20:42.227 [SPEAKER_01]: This book is not just a document for reading and perusal, but it's for use and it's for historicity. 20:43.248 --> 20:47.091 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be a witness of what we are going through right now. 20:48.752 --> 21:00.821 [SPEAKER_01]: And I want this book to serve as a witness not only for twenty twenty five, but for my grandchildren, I want them to know what we prayed our way through. 21:01.740 --> 21:02.380 [SPEAKER_01]: at this time. 21:03.040 --> 21:08.302 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes, that's a beautiful way to think about your prayers capturing the movement of history. 21:08.422 --> 21:10.623 [SPEAKER_00]: And these prayers absolutely breathe. 21:11.643 --> 21:12.644 [SPEAKER_00]: They are not flat. 21:12.824 --> 21:13.564 [SPEAKER_00]: They are not flat. 21:14.224 --> 21:15.505 [SPEAKER_00]: They are alive. 21:15.565 --> 21:19.146 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm so grateful for what you have given to us. 21:20.126 --> 21:23.647 [SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to press pause here and we'll be back in just a moment. 21:23.727 --> 21:24.788 [SPEAKER_00]: I do a little commercial break. 21:25.028 --> 21:25.608 [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right home. 21:28.935 --> 21:38.399 [SPEAKER_00]: Our NAACP Image Award-nominated book, Truth Table, Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation, is making waves and shifting culture. 21:39.179 --> 21:46.502 [SPEAKER_00]: I close this book feeling like I had just partaken in a multi-course meal, filled with grace and the courage to carry on. 21:47.343 --> 21:50.304 [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe you'll finish this book feeling the same way. 21:50.964 --> 21:53.305 [SPEAKER_00]: Morgan Harper Nichols, Artist in Poet. 21:53.885 --> 21:57.707 [SPEAKER_00]: By Truth's Table, Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation 21:58.355 --> 22:00.896 [SPEAKER_00]: at our website or wherever books are sold. 22:02.577 --> 22:04.477 [SPEAKER_00]: As you can see, we're not good for asking. 22:04.497 --> 22:07.938 [SPEAKER_00]: We're asking for money, but we are asking for money today and here's why. 22:08.279 --> 22:12.220 [SPEAKER_00]: In order for us to bring the content that we've been bringing to you for years at this point. 22:12.260 --> 22:23.504 [SPEAKER_00]: Eight years, we've got a whole background of folks who are talented and gifted and loving people who we have to pay to make these things happen as well as ourselves and we want to keep bringing great content to you. 22:23.624 --> 22:23.744 [SPEAKER_00]: Eight 22:24.064 --> 22:27.128 [SPEAKER_00]: We are in a desert of truth right now. 22:27.208 --> 22:30.191 [SPEAKER_00]: There seems to be lots of lies happening last night. 22:30.231 --> 22:39.122 [SPEAKER_00]: And so with you, some of the ideas of promoting security in any way, shape or form, we invite you to partner with true staple and become one of our Patreon supporters. 22:39.302 --> 22:45.367 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, actually, when you become a support, you actually get the episodes a couple of days before the rest of the world. 22:45.608 --> 22:49.791 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, you get to speak to, you know, of course, communicate with us. 22:49.831 --> 22:51.433 [SPEAKER_02]: Let us know your thoughts about that episode. 22:51.773 --> 22:57.078 [SPEAKER_02]: And of course, we will be having some more private discussions about things going on in pop culture. 22:57.978 --> 23:00.321 [SPEAKER_02]: And we are back at the table with our good sister 23:14.980 --> 23:21.147 [SPEAKER_02]: Sharifah, Steven's offer of way we talked to God, okay? 23:21.508 --> 23:22.289 [SPEAKER_02]: For black women. 23:22.629 --> 23:24.511 [SPEAKER_02]: So let's get into the substance of the book. 23:24.531 --> 23:25.953 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, come on. 23:25.973 --> 23:32.901 [SPEAKER_02]: We talked about you know how you I mean you go for the mundane to the magnificent you really do you know and I I did lift up 23:33.722 --> 23:35.583 [SPEAKER_02]: when the braids are too tight. 23:36.303 --> 23:38.765 [SPEAKER_02]: And I want you to read your words. 23:38.785 --> 23:43.828 [SPEAKER_02]: I want you to read an excerpt, but I'm going to read this one. 23:43.908 --> 23:46.389 [SPEAKER_02]: And this is a practice. 23:48.650 --> 23:50.891 [SPEAKER_02]: So, first of all, the artwork, that's again. 23:51.251 --> 23:56.672 [SPEAKER_02]: It's giving us poetic justice, jettogess, and realness. 23:56.692 --> 23:58.012 [SPEAKER_02]: That's it. 23:58.052 --> 23:58.592 [SPEAKER_00]: That's it. 23:58.612 --> 23:58.992 [SPEAKER_00]: That's it. 23:59.012 --> 24:03.353 [SPEAKER_00]: The braids have gotten a little bit loose though when you can put it in the toilet. 24:03.894 --> 24:04.374 [SPEAKER_00]: That's true. 24:05.274 --> 24:10.735 [SPEAKER_02]: When the braids are too tight, Deena Lord, the braids are too tight. 24:11.595 --> 24:13.356 [SPEAKER_02]: Me and the hair lady about to fight. 24:13.776 --> 24:13.996 [SPEAKER_02]: Hey. 24:17.197 --> 24:18.517 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm staying awake tonight. 24:19.577 --> 24:22.238 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and I lay down is my plate. 24:22.518 --> 24:23.178 [SPEAKER_02]: My God. 24:23.658 --> 24:27.359 [SPEAKER_02]: My mouth pulled to my second sight. 24:27.839 --> 24:29.679 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, that face lift. 24:29.940 --> 24:30.860 [SPEAKER_02]: That face lift though. 24:31.020 --> 24:31.640 [SPEAKER_02]: That face lift. 24:31.880 --> 24:36.361 [SPEAKER_02]: I hope this town on going get me right. 24:37.121 --> 24:38.821 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, the end. 24:39.001 --> 24:39.641 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my goodness. 24:39.741 --> 24:42.362 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's have true aware it's ever been spoken. 24:44.221 --> 24:44.702 [SPEAKER_00]: I have to mute myself! 24:44.722 --> 24:58.278 [SPEAKER_02]: This is so silly, you're just saying, I mean, if I were an actress, I would say, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying, you're just saying. 25:00.830 --> 25:04.172 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I would cut up so bad and you look back and be like, well, I've been cutting up, don't I? 25:04.212 --> 25:06.593 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what that is? 25:07.073 --> 25:08.013 [SPEAKER_00]: It is something. 25:08.913 --> 25:10.054 [SPEAKER_03]: We are supposed to go. 25:10.074 --> 25:10.654 [SPEAKER_02]: We see. 25:10.774 --> 25:11.915 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't find it. 25:12.035 --> 25:13.055 [SPEAKER_02]: I identify. 25:13.195 --> 25:14.196 [SPEAKER_02]: I see child a little. 25:14.276 --> 25:15.196 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just saying. 25:15.236 --> 25:18.637 [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, my greater Patricia, we have it understanding love. 25:18.697 --> 25:19.538 [SPEAKER_02]: She's very good. 25:19.578 --> 25:20.258 [SPEAKER_02]: We can saw it. 25:20.278 --> 25:20.598 [SPEAKER_02]: I go now. 25:20.618 --> 25:23.599 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, my edges are a little sensitive. 25:23.980 --> 25:26.120 [SPEAKER_02]: Because it has been too tight all my life. 25:26.261 --> 25:26.881 [SPEAKER_02]: I've had this. 25:27.061 --> 25:27.721 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's true. 25:27.741 --> 25:28.001 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. 25:28.381 --> 25:29.582 [SPEAKER_02]: We have it understanding. 25:30.002 --> 25:31.263 [SPEAKER_02]: But should we? 25:31.423 --> 25:34.004 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you wrote this was like, what? 25:34.424 --> 25:36.445 [SPEAKER_00]: What was the inspiration for that moment? 25:36.625 --> 25:38.826 [SPEAKER_00]: Give us some context of the moment as you would like. 25:38.866 --> 25:40.827 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me get to my Google Doc. 25:41.607 --> 25:45.309 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, I don't have to give you any special context for this. 25:45.829 --> 25:46.909 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't. 25:48.310 --> 25:49.611 [SPEAKER_01]: No exactly. 25:50.718 --> 25:52.059 [SPEAKER_01]: What was your question? 25:52.379 --> 25:56.182 [SPEAKER_01]: Let me make it rhyme because I kept cutting bars. 25:59.945 --> 26:00.965 [SPEAKER_01]: We all been there. 26:03.447 --> 26:09.151 [SPEAKER_00]: When protective hairstyles fight you, when the protective hairstyles are not protective. 26:09.351 --> 26:10.052 [SPEAKER_03]: They are not. 26:10.112 --> 26:13.354 [SPEAKER_00]: When the protective hairstyles break down, they're listening. 26:13.494 --> 26:14.675 [SPEAKER_00]: It's me. 26:14.755 --> 26:17.817 [SPEAKER_01]: That was my motivation. 26:21.889 --> 26:28.491 [SPEAKER_02]: No, I just, anyway, I just, I love that I just was like, oh my, and there's so much more, we, we're, let's get into the content. 26:28.511 --> 26:28.691 [SPEAKER_02]: Okay. 26:28.811 --> 26:28.991 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. 26:29.131 --> 26:31.732 [SPEAKER_02]: So let me ask you, and even more serious questions. 26:31.752 --> 26:32.772 [SPEAKER_02]: That was a serious question. 26:32.992 --> 26:33.772 [SPEAKER_02]: That was a serious question. 26:33.832 --> 26:34.053 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. 26:34.353 --> 26:35.353 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry. 26:35.753 --> 26:36.133 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry. 26:36.153 --> 26:37.814 [SPEAKER_02]: This is, but more serious. 26:38.314 --> 26:40.054 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you're approached to this book. 26:40.314 --> 26:42.055 [SPEAKER_02]: Can you talk about your approach to this book? 26:42.635 --> 26:49.240 [SPEAKER_02]: because you write just like Christina said, the prayers, the poems live. 26:49.560 --> 26:52.762 [SPEAKER_02]: They are embodied, they're not flat, they're not one dimensional. 26:53.083 --> 26:57.746 [SPEAKER_02]: So when I read this, I'm thinking, my God, Sharifa has been through it all. 26:59.087 --> 27:05.412 [SPEAKER_02]: Can you talk to us though about your approach to this book and just the ministry of just intercession? 27:06.312 --> 27:11.036 [SPEAKER_02]: Because are you right to assume that you've gone through all the things in this book? 27:12.172 --> 27:14.633 [SPEAKER_02]: Or are we wrong to assume that? 27:15.273 --> 27:16.254 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, okay. 27:16.354 --> 27:24.898 [SPEAKER_01]: So my motivation and my inspiration in the process was first of all the biblical record. 27:25.778 --> 27:38.824 [SPEAKER_01]: So there is so much variety in the Bible in terms of history in terms of poetry in terms of lamentation and praise in terms of like 27:40.329 --> 27:44.352 [SPEAKER_01]: saw the Solomon existing just nestled in the Bible. 27:46.353 --> 27:58.361 [SPEAKER_01]: The different authors and how how much diversity there was there is in how each book expressed itself. 27:59.262 --> 28:01.924 [SPEAKER_01]: So under the hand of God and the inspiration of God, 28:03.150 --> 28:04.451 [SPEAKER_01]: People still got to beat themselves. 28:05.092 --> 28:07.093 [SPEAKER_01]: And they communicated as themselves. 28:07.373 --> 28:17.261 [SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to do the same thing and have the same mirror the same kind of diversity in subject and in approach. 28:17.981 --> 28:19.843 [SPEAKER_01]: I also wanted to be playful. 28:19.963 --> 28:24.847 [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't want to be all serious because I think prayer is a conversation. 28:25.127 --> 28:28.489 [SPEAKER_01]: And we are always talking like, do you go thou? 28:29.831 --> 28:37.460 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, um, let us speak about only this, this superficial piety in the kingdoms. 28:38.281 --> 28:42.646 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and even kingdoms in that day, that was how people spoke. 28:42.966 --> 28:43.326 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. 28:43.347 --> 28:43.767 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. 28:43.987 --> 28:44.348 [SPEAKER_00]: That's right. 28:45.709 --> 28:46.810 [SPEAKER_01]: Even back in that thing. 28:49.191 --> 28:52.952 [SPEAKER_02]: I can't get my mom and I grab my mom and leave it back there, but that's all right. 28:53.433 --> 28:57.915 [SPEAKER_00]: We don't really try to get grandma's to do nothing, but that's exactly exactly. 28:59.595 --> 29:04.337 [SPEAKER_01]: I find value in the King James Bible, but this is some of them treasures should be like, yes. 29:07.300 --> 29:09.343 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't just let the Lord's prayer in anything. 29:09.403 --> 29:11.906 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's not how I do it. 29:11.967 --> 29:13.348 [SPEAKER_01]: No, he makes us meet. 29:13.569 --> 29:14.490 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. 29:14.951 --> 29:16.833 [SPEAKER_02]: Hey, you're not going to get a song. 29:16.873 --> 29:17.734 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure. 29:17.754 --> 29:18.876 [SPEAKER_01]: I was so loving. 29:19.256 --> 29:19.537 [SPEAKER_01]: You know? 29:19.737 --> 29:20.398 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 29:20.838 --> 29:21.239 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah. 29:21.259 --> 29:22.320 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just yeah. 29:22.821 --> 29:23.041 [SPEAKER_01]: Sweet. 29:23.061 --> 29:23.142 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. 29:23.662 --> 29:30.323 [SPEAKER_01]: But the intercession aspect, you know, you can make me giggle through this whole thing. 29:32.064 --> 29:34.004 [SPEAKER_01]: The intersection intersection. 29:34.344 --> 29:36.405 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, but also intercession. 29:38.145 --> 29:51.468 [SPEAKER_01]: Is, you know, if this is for black women, I know that we're not a monolith and there are things that we're going through and there are people I love who are going through things. 29:54.120 --> 29:54.821 [SPEAKER_01]: And that's enough. 29:55.402 --> 29:58.325 [SPEAKER_01]: That's enough for me to want to write a prayer for them. 29:58.746 --> 30:04.452 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not yet a grandparent, but I've seen the joy. 30:05.877 --> 30:12.460 [SPEAKER_01]: on my parents' faces, on my loved ones' faces with their little grandchildren. 30:12.780 --> 30:16.902 [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen them act completely different with their grandchildren than they do with their children. 30:17.462 --> 30:17.982 [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen it. 30:18.223 --> 30:19.023 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a writer about it. 30:21.024 --> 30:26.906 [SPEAKER_01]: I have loved women who I love, who had abortions. 30:29.608 --> 30:34.170 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not over for them in terms of their relationship with God, and I want to make that point. 30:36.677 --> 30:52.190 [SPEAKER_01]: I know, I know women who have gone through miscarriages, who have really wonderful husbands that they still manage to have arguments with, because a human living with another human. 30:53.751 --> 30:56.353 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I know that one personally, so that one person. 30:56.454 --> 30:57.995 [SPEAKER_01]: Right, that was me. 31:05.484 --> 31:29.917 [SPEAKER_01]: But the point is, in prayer and intercession, in wanting black women to see themselves in this book, I had to take myself out of my own personal experience and into compassion, care, observation, curiosity for black women who have had different experiences than me. 31:31.613 --> 31:48.126 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, the pre-sode of all believers and really picking up this ministry of intercession that crisis given and poured out the spirit so that we might be about our business of intercession that really is captured so beautifully in this book. 31:48.146 --> 31:58.034 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think there's a section in this book and I thought about how there are few spaces, even amongst black authors, 31:59.127 --> 32:03.148 [SPEAKER_00]: Who will name the heart brokenness of black women? 32:06.629 --> 32:07.549 [SPEAKER_00]: Just like simply. 32:08.850 --> 32:12.911 [SPEAKER_00]: And you have a section that just names that when we talk to God about our heartbreak. 32:13.551 --> 32:27.635 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think one of the many robberies of massage nor and of internalize racism and sexism is that we sometimes don't give ourselves space to name our heart brokenness. 32:28.235 --> 32:28.575 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. 32:28.896 --> 32:29.956 [SPEAKER_00]: But we are fully human. 32:29.996 --> 32:33.639 [SPEAKER_00]: So there's all entire, entire treatment that you, you do there. 32:33.879 --> 32:35.841 [SPEAKER_00]: And there's so many things that just stand out. 32:35.881 --> 32:39.504 [SPEAKER_00]: But that, again, and selling your book, you all want to get this. 32:39.544 --> 32:42.085 [SPEAKER_00]: And you want to think about reading it in community with others. 32:42.666 --> 32:45.568 [SPEAKER_00]: So I've got to think that stand out to me that resonate with me. 32:45.628 --> 32:48.851 [SPEAKER_00]: But I want to hand it over to you because I would love for you. 32:49.491 --> 32:52.052 [SPEAKER_00]: to minister to some of our listeners. 32:52.072 --> 32:56.234 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you wrote a book for black women, prayers and poems. 32:56.254 --> 33:02.617 [SPEAKER_00]: We got a podcast that is by our core black Christian women and we are down on a apologetic in who we center. 33:02.977 --> 33:10.621 [SPEAKER_00]: And yet we know we have audience members who are from very different backgrounds and we praise the Lord and we pray that the Lord will bless them as well. 33:10.701 --> 33:12.522 [SPEAKER_00]: But we're clear about our core audience. 33:12.562 --> 33:15.483 [SPEAKER_00]: And so is there something in your book? 33:15.863 --> 33:16.704 [SPEAKER_00]: Is there a prayer? 33:17.324 --> 33:21.708 [SPEAKER_00]: that you would want to lift up now to minister to some of our core listeners. 33:23.189 --> 33:27.913 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, well, you mentioned massage and wire specifically. 33:29.094 --> 33:32.677 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I would love to read the poem and prayer for that. 33:37.361 --> 33:42.345 [SPEAKER_01]: Intersection intersecting lines of presumption, course through my experience. 33:43.603 --> 33:53.793 [SPEAKER_01]: hypervisible, invisible, diversity, higher, magical, negris, mami, to dependent, to independent. 33:55.355 --> 34:04.905 [SPEAKER_01]: Like a tattoo, these intersecting lines of discrimination are drawn upon my skin by people without new ones or curiosity. 34:06.903 --> 34:14.488 [SPEAKER_01]: I am Sarah Bartman, body exploited, goctat and dissected for lurid amusement. 34:16.749 --> 34:27.536 [SPEAKER_01]: I am Antoinette Bonnie Kendia Bailey, disbelief by my white supervisor as I begged for margin to tend to who my mental health. 34:30.098 --> 34:31.659 [SPEAKER_01]: I am Henrietta Lacks, 34:32.952 --> 34:46.099 [SPEAKER_01]: dying of cancer, my body harvested for my DNA, used for decades for research and profit without consent, apology, or compensation. 34:47.600 --> 34:56.285 [SPEAKER_01]: I am Serena Williams arguing for my life on my laboring bed because no one believes my crises. 34:58.486 --> 35:01.948 [SPEAKER_01]: I am sojourner-truth reminding people 35:02.743 --> 35:05.704 [SPEAKER_01]: that black women are women. 35:09.305 --> 35:11.905 [SPEAKER_01]: God of Hagar and Yokebad. 35:14.266 --> 35:17.827 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you see us used by people who seem so blessed by you? 35:19.287 --> 35:20.768 [SPEAKER_01]: Why do you send us back? 35:22.728 --> 35:32.351 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you see us loving our children desperate to predict them yet having to send them into a world that may be apathetic to their beauty and value? 35:33.428 --> 35:35.429 [SPEAKER_01]: Why not change the world? 35:37.449 --> 35:42.371 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you not see that to be a black woman is to be gaslit several ways? 35:43.171 --> 35:49.173 [SPEAKER_01]: Not knowing whether people are coming for you because of your race or your gender or both? 35:51.785 --> 36:10.921 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you see us marching, tearing down racist flags, casting our bodies in front of guns and pepper spray, testifying before hostile panels for the uplift of black people, but being greeted with silence when we are the victims of injustice. 36:13.872 --> 36:24.242 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you see all the times our survival is wrapped up in persevering and strength only to have our brothers complain that we're not docile enough? 36:27.925 --> 36:29.387 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you seen white feminism? 36:31.003 --> 36:32.284 [SPEAKER_01]: There is no freedom there. 36:32.824 --> 36:35.085 [SPEAKER_01]: They want us to be mules for their cause. 36:36.066 --> 36:44.410 [SPEAKER_01]: We are ignored and then accosted by white women's tears when we are not fighting by their side for measures that will benefit only them. 36:46.131 --> 36:47.792 [SPEAKER_01]: We can't breathe either. 36:50.253 --> 36:54.736 [SPEAKER_01]: We need space to discover ourselves out from under the harsh gaze of misogyn war. 36:55.156 --> 36:57.297 [SPEAKER_01]: Where is our space, Lord? 36:59.795 --> 37:04.198 [SPEAKER_01]: Creator never do we want to be anything else but black women. 37:04.758 --> 37:11.863 [SPEAKER_01]: Courageous, creative, intelligent, resourceful, community-minded, and mothers to civilization. 37:13.644 --> 37:17.026 [SPEAKER_01]: But it is tiring to fight for the right to exist. 37:18.907 --> 37:20.168 [SPEAKER_01]: This is what I ask of you. 37:22.570 --> 37:22.890 [SPEAKER_01]: Peace. 37:26.272 --> 37:27.113 [SPEAKER_01]: The space to be 37:28.530 --> 37:30.511 [SPEAKER_01]: And I want your justice to roll down. 37:31.571 --> 37:32.612 [SPEAKER_01]: Claim me. 37:33.872 --> 37:37.634 [SPEAKER_01]: Show up and show folks that black women are beloved and worth defending. 37:37.654 --> 37:39.835 [SPEAKER_01]: I want that kind of justice. 37:40.715 --> 37:46.858 [SPEAKER_01]: The kind that abolishes inequity and brings those in the margins to the center. 37:47.922 --> 38:01.569 [SPEAKER_01]: The kind of action that fulfills Galatians, three, twenty-eight, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Satan nor free nor is their male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 38:03.110 --> 38:06.612 [SPEAKER_01]: I know you want more for black women. 38:07.792 --> 38:08.552 [SPEAKER_01]: Make it so. 38:10.033 --> 38:10.574 [SPEAKER_01]: Make it so. 38:15.045 --> 38:43.352 [SPEAKER_02]: Say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, say, 38:46.095 --> 38:52.437 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's just, it's hard just. 38:54.337 --> 38:57.778 [SPEAKER_02]: And it ought not be, make it so, make it so. 38:58.618 --> 38:59.419 [SPEAKER_00]: I receive that. 38:59.859 --> 39:00.639 [SPEAKER_02]: That was beautiful. 39:00.679 --> 39:01.379 [SPEAKER_00]: You know the Lord. 39:01.399 --> 39:02.619 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the Kada so God. 39:04.020 --> 39:06.780 [SPEAKER_02]: And man, being the Kada is vindicated so Lord. 39:07.260 --> 39:13.142 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you know, you've written so many, so many other moving. 39:14.463 --> 39:22.204 [SPEAKER_02]: entries of poetry in this book, it's particularly one about when you bury your parent, you know. 39:23.051 --> 39:27.634 [SPEAKER_02]: That's something that I identify with as one who's father died. 39:27.654 --> 39:32.298 [SPEAKER_02]: It will be twenty-four years this summer. 39:32.378 --> 39:33.419 [SPEAKER_02]: Time has gone. 39:33.439 --> 39:41.225 [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know where the time has gone, but that grief doesn't go away because the love never dies, right? 39:42.046 --> 39:44.628 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just curious if you could even just talk to us about that. 39:44.668 --> 39:51.234 [SPEAKER_02]: What it means, I thought about that because I thought about so many people in our community who have had to bury 39:51.894 --> 40:09.113 [SPEAKER_02]: one parent or two parents, you know, or, or maybe doesn't have, you know, a parent or I'm always the parent and grandpa was or auntie or uncle somebody stepped in right because we have were communal, you know, in those ways, and we step up in those ways. 40:09.473 --> 40:20.597 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm curious about just even what inspired that poem, or that even that prayer, I know that there's so many people that are grieving, but also parents in different ways for different reasons. 40:20.877 --> 40:23.518 [SPEAKER_02]: And so I love for you to just speak to that a bit. 40:25.439 --> 40:29.541 [SPEAKER_01]: Grape is always here. 40:29.661 --> 40:31.641 [SPEAKER_01]: It's always part of the human experience. 40:33.962 --> 40:38.204 [SPEAKER_01]: I have yet my parents are alive. 40:39.630 --> 40:57.583 [SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, wow, my, um, but I have loved ones who, uh, I have had the privilege of supporting through bereavement. 40:58.504 --> 41:04.128 [SPEAKER_01]: And, and I know that grief grief doesn't care about timelines. 41:04.208 --> 41:06.210 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't care about the passage of time. 41:06.230 --> 41:07.491 [SPEAKER_01]: It is 41:08.302 --> 41:13.128 [SPEAKER_01]: uncooperative as far as time healing wounds. 41:15.351 --> 41:19.276 [SPEAKER_01]: It does shift, but it's always there just like you said. 41:22.042 --> 41:42.652 [SPEAKER_01]: And I especially wanted to write on bereavement because I've heard some interesting things said to people who not let me not say interesting some really hurtful things said people who are grieving 41:45.917 --> 42:01.422 [SPEAKER_01]: really warped theology around death that makes it sound as if the perfect Christian, the mature Christian does not grieve. 42:03.503 --> 42:12.166 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to testify and be a witness that that is untrue, that I take my cues from Jesus 42:13.498 --> 42:23.228 [SPEAKER_01]: who wept at the grave of Lazarus, who wanted the cup of death to pass from him, who died and rose again to abolish death. 42:24.710 --> 42:33.740 [SPEAKER_01]: And if my Savior says that death ain't good, I too will say that death is not good. 42:34.848 --> 42:47.578 [SPEAKER_01]: We need to process the grief of losing people who we loved or even people who we wish we had a different relationship with his death ends hope for that. 42:48.738 --> 42:51.481 [SPEAKER_01]: That's a whole kind of complicated grief. 42:53.802 --> 43:03.850 [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to write something that would comfort the bereaved in experiencing loss and being honest about 43:04.562 --> 43:19.353 [SPEAKER_01]: the anger, the profound sadness, the sacredness of the end of a life. 43:19.593 --> 43:31.802 [SPEAKER_01]: That was my motivation for specifically for the grief associated with bearing a parent, with bearing a loved one. 43:33.418 --> 43:34.358 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much. 43:34.438 --> 43:37.419 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's so deeply incarnational. 43:38.619 --> 43:42.199 [SPEAKER_02]: I thought you had lost the parents, so I want to thank you for giving voice to that. 43:42.800 --> 43:58.442 [SPEAKER_02]: To that grief, so specifically, and so beautifully, because I felt every line that your stands at, so I said, you know, that you wrote, and I'm grateful for it, as a as a griever myself. 43:58.522 --> 43:58.922 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. 43:59.002 --> 44:01.243 [SPEAKER_02]: I'm really honored by your words. 44:01.683 --> 44:02.323 [SPEAKER_01]: So honored. 44:04.264 --> 44:23.082 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's so much that I think that to a Kennedy's point, that we can look at many of the things that you wrote in this book and wonder if it's your own experience because it in a lot of ways you are serving as, you know, a midwife of our longings of our sorrow. 44:24.897 --> 44:30.118 [SPEAKER_00]: and helping us to be pointed to the person who cares the most, cares most truly Jesus. 44:30.198 --> 44:41.961 [SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to give you an opportunity to do that very thing and give us an opportunity to be blessed through your prayers right now to our audience and for us. 44:41.981 --> 44:46.802 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to just invite you to end our time together, pray for our listeners. 44:46.842 --> 44:49.923 [SPEAKER_00]: You know all that's happening in the world we are right now. 44:50.573 --> 44:50.833 [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. 44:51.113 --> 44:57.737 [SPEAKER_00]: And we know how long it takes to put a book out in the world, which means that if this book was coming out right now, you probably have some additional prayer topics. 44:59.978 --> 45:04.960 [SPEAKER_00]: That would have made it because, you know, some additional matters have taken place in the world. 45:05.000 --> 45:15.485 [SPEAKER_00]: But in light of that, in light of that, just whatever the Lord speaks to your heart, if you would lead us in the time of prayer now, and our listeners, thank you. 45:21.404 --> 45:24.626 [SPEAKER_01]: Father God, creator of the universe. 45:28.028 --> 45:33.431 [SPEAKER_01]: You hold time in your hands, you hold space in your hands. 45:38.755 --> 45:47.520 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray that we take our comfort from the fact that you hold not only the present but the future, 45:48.553 --> 45:51.474 [SPEAKER_01]: Just as you have the past and time is nothing to you, Lord. 45:55.776 --> 46:04.959 [SPEAKER_01]: Holy Spirit, we pray for your counsel and your comfort in these times. 46:07.820 --> 46:14.583 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord send your spirit like a pillar of cloud 46:15.955 --> 46:23.760 [SPEAKER_01]: like a pillar of fire that leads us through the wilderness times that we are experiencing right now, God. 46:26.942 --> 46:30.324 [SPEAKER_01]: I know Lord, that you are God over the elements. 46:31.805 --> 46:33.646 [SPEAKER_01]: You are God of the impossible. 46:34.967 --> 46:43.832 [SPEAKER_01]: You are God who can split the Red Sea when there is nowhere else to go when I pray, depending on you to do that here and now. 46:48.378 --> 46:54.200 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray that you will be the God who sees and the God who rescues. 46:55.781 --> 46:58.402 [SPEAKER_01]: The God who turns impossible into done. 46:58.842 --> 46:59.342 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes. 47:00.602 --> 47:02.183 [SPEAKER_01]: Whether that is in Gaza. 47:04.804 --> 47:06.484 [SPEAKER_01]: Whether that is in Congo. 47:06.905 --> 47:07.365 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, God. 47:10.146 --> 47:12.086 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, whether that is in Washington, D.C. 47:17.865 --> 47:20.267 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord God, I just pray for your mercy. 47:20.287 --> 47:29.994 [SPEAKER_01]: I thank you for your example and Jesus Christ the best representative of your love and care. 47:33.556 --> 47:35.578 [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray, I just pray. 47:35.598 --> 47:42.903 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray your mercy over every woman, every black woman who is listening right now. 47:48.200 --> 47:51.664 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray the promise of Jesus over everyone listening. 47:53.746 --> 47:54.967 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, come to me. 47:57.129 --> 47:59.331 [SPEAKER_01]: You who are heavy-laden. 48:02.775 --> 48:03.836 [SPEAKER_01]: I will give you rest. 48:07.059 --> 48:10.723 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said, take my Yoke upon you and learn of me. 48:13.135 --> 48:17.257 [SPEAKER_01]: For I am humble and heart, and you will find rest for your soul. 48:18.137 --> 48:21.238 [SPEAKER_01]: Over restless, we are burdened. 48:22.759 --> 48:26.621 [SPEAKER_01]: There are burdens on us right now that we did not put on our backs. 48:28.241 --> 48:28.942 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes. 48:28.962 --> 48:30.002 [SPEAKER_01]: I agree with your rest. 48:32.903 --> 48:35.365 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray for the peace that only you can provide, Lord. 48:38.506 --> 48:40.927 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray for mana in this wilderness time. 48:42.250 --> 48:44.551 [SPEAKER_01]: for everyone who is listening, man hour. 48:47.272 --> 48:51.733 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray for that spiritual manor and that physical manor. 48:52.274 --> 48:53.694 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray the impossible. 48:54.294 --> 49:01.577 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray that we would find provision where there is none where it is being barred that you would provide it. 49:03.278 --> 49:09.280 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray thanking you for just glimpses of justice and whether it's that's 49:10.742 --> 49:19.307 [SPEAKER_01]: That tree that fell on a museum that shouldn't exist, Lord, whether it is burning plantation houses Lord, I thank you. 49:20.728 --> 49:24.990 [SPEAKER_01]: I thank you for glimpses of justice. 49:25.190 --> 49:29.113 [SPEAKER_01]: When the government can't provide it, that you provided in nature, Lord. 49:32.114 --> 49:36.337 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray for justice to roll down. 49:39.193 --> 49:45.934 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray that you would give us the strength to be part of the movement of that justice rolling down more. 49:47.895 --> 50:06.658 [SPEAKER_01]: I pray that just like Isaiah said, we will mount up on wings, the vehicles that we would run and not grow tired because our energy, our love, our tenacity, our audacity, 50:07.679 --> 50:09.040 [SPEAKER_01]: will come from you. 50:09.060 --> 50:11.482 [SPEAKER_01]: I praise you. 50:15.006 --> 50:17.408 [SPEAKER_01]: We are fearfully and wonderfully made by you. 50:19.870 --> 50:24.414 [SPEAKER_01]: I take my cues from you, the living God, and no one else. 50:26.216 --> 50:33.102 [SPEAKER_01]: And it is by your power in the power of the Spirit and in the name of Jesus I pray. 50:33.122 --> 50:34.203 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen. 50:36.706 --> 50:37.306 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 50:37.366 --> 50:37.727 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 50:37.767 --> 50:38.847 [SPEAKER_02]: God hear our prayer. 50:39.648 --> 50:40.108 [SPEAKER_02]: Amen. 50:40.148 --> 50:40.428 [SPEAKER_02]: Amen. 50:40.448 --> 50:40.868 [SPEAKER_02]: Amen. 50:41.509 --> 50:48.253 [SPEAKER_02]: Sharifah tell our sisters where they can purchase when we talk to God. 50:49.353 --> 50:50.974 [SPEAKER_02]: Prayers and poems are black women. 50:51.454 --> 50:52.235 [SPEAKER_02]: Where can they buy it? 50:54.079 --> 50:59.143 [SPEAKER_01]: When we talk to God is available online wherever books are sold. 51:00.104 --> 51:03.347 [SPEAKER_01]: And you can find physical copies. 51:03.847 --> 51:05.689 [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen them so far and Barnes and Noble. 51:06.350 --> 51:12.876 [SPEAKER_01]: But you know, there are other places to buy them that I choose not to talk about. 51:13.096 --> 51:13.496 [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. 51:14.497 --> 51:16.779 [SPEAKER_01]: There are all those plays shop though, right? 51:16.799 --> 51:17.800 [SPEAKER_01]: Look shop though. 51:18.821 --> 51:19.342 [SPEAKER_01]: Look shop. 51:20.323 --> 51:23.566 [SPEAKER_01]: If you buy from there, you're also supporting local bookstores. 51:23.606 --> 51:27.249 [SPEAKER_01]: So I really encourage that. 51:28.590 --> 51:29.831 [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I encourage that. 51:30.192 --> 51:34.736 [SPEAKER_01]: But if you if you mess with Amazon at all, you could just leave a review there. 51:34.916 --> 51:37.258 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to buy from this reviews important. 51:37.318 --> 51:41.081 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, please review the book by the book and review it. 51:41.101 --> 51:43.484 [SPEAKER_02]: Support black and office. 51:43.544 --> 51:44.364 [SPEAKER_02]: It's a good review. 51:45.265 --> 51:52.173 [SPEAKER_00]: If it's a review well, review well. 51:52.293 --> 51:55.056 [SPEAKER_00]: And get a couple copies for you and your friend. 51:55.096 --> 51:56.277 [SPEAKER_02]: This is the perfect gift. 51:56.417 --> 51:57.318 [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my goodness. 51:57.459 --> 51:59.401 [SPEAKER_00]: This is a communal book. 51:59.541 --> 52:03.285 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't say that about every book, you know, but I think this is one where 52:03.916 --> 52:26.312 [SPEAKER_00]: It gets sweeter when you have a conversation partner and you can say yes girl did you read that prayer about knowing your mother tongue did you read that prayer about bullies and just to be able to to reference somebody when reference to someone when they're going through a tough moment or transition to be like girl turn page eighty 52:26.654 --> 52:28.735 [SPEAKER_00]: going to pay fifty. 52:29.535 --> 52:35.457 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think at this time when things can be so difficult is as if our words and our breath are taken away from us. 52:35.957 --> 52:43.900 [SPEAKER_00]: Having you do this this holy labor of giving us prayers in the came back to our God has been so important in rich. 52:43.920 --> 52:45.760 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we're grateful to have hosted you today. 52:45.800 --> 52:46.201 [SPEAKER_00]: Sure. 52:46.721 --> 52:48.181 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm grateful to have been here. 52:48.381 --> 52:50.382 [SPEAKER_01]: This is such an honor. 52:50.799 --> 52:51.239 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. 52:51.459 --> 52:51.959 [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you both. 52:52.799 --> 52:53.980 [SPEAKER_02]: It was our joy. 52:54.100 --> 52:57.101 [SPEAKER_02]: And of course, we want to thank our listeners. 52:57.161 --> 53:00.441 [SPEAKER_02]: Our sisters for taking a seat at the table with us this week. 53:00.481 --> 53:02.302 [SPEAKER_02]: Let's keep the conversation going. 53:02.422 --> 53:04.722 [SPEAKER_02]: Share your thoughts about behind the book. 53:05.322 --> 53:07.223 [SPEAKER_02]: When we talk to God, okay? 53:07.803 --> 53:11.724 [SPEAKER_02]: Prayers and poems for Black women by Sharifa Stevens. 53:11.804 --> 53:12.224 [SPEAKER_02]: All right. 53:12.444 --> 53:15.505 [SPEAKER_02]: You can share your thoughts about this episode on Instagram. 53:16.005 --> 53:22.573 [SPEAKER_02]: Threads or Facebook at truthtable, or you can email us your thoughts at asktruthtableagmail.com. 53:23.013 --> 53:27.959 [SPEAKER_02]: Black women did y'all know that truthtable has a black woman's discipleship group on Facebook. 53:28.560 --> 53:29.461 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, now you do. 53:29.861 --> 53:34.767 [SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you follow truthtable on Facebook, join our Facebook group today and answer their entry questions. 53:35.347 --> 53:36.428 [SPEAKER_02]: and write your home girls. 53:36.989 --> 53:41.153 [SPEAKER_02]: Don't forget to rate and review to show on iTunes and subscribe on your favorite podcast player. 53:41.514 --> 53:43.816 [SPEAKER_02]: True Table is also on YouTube too. 53:43.916 --> 53:51.985 [SPEAKER_02]: So if you want to watch YouTube, I'll be able to watch a Tuesday, but you can watch us at our Tuesdays page at True Table on YouTube. 53:57.917 --> 54:19.109 [SPEAKER_02]: We also have a Patreon account so you can send your love offerings to patreon.com slash choose table or you can bless us at our PayPal which is PayPal.me slash choose table choose table audio producer is Joshua Heath our video producer is Darryl Bradford and choose tables executive producers and hosts are a community who and Christina Edminson will see you soon on the next choose table. 54:19.550 --> 54:19.770 [SPEAKER_02]: Bye.