The Gift of a Smart Intuitive Parent

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Arthur family lore is you know whatever Christmas yes exactly what everyone's going around the table and everyone has a story this is mine so my father and his stepmom used to work at this well they volunteered at this annual rib cook-off that would last about a week. There are all kinds of activities at this thing and there's this giant rock wall to me it felt giant at least I mean when I tell you I was a scared child I mean I'm just a scared person and I don't say that in a self-deprecating way I think fear can be really beautiful and sacred and I'm not ashamed of that but I am a very scared person.

Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.

This week Katherine chats to writer and poet Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh and creator of Black Liturgies.

Unable to speak up as a child, Cole talks about how she learned to find her voice amid a family of gifted talkers and storytellers. Cole describes her father and grandmother as inspirational figures who nevertheless were marked by the generational trauma experienced by so many African Americans. But from this emerges Cole’s own, unique spiritual account of the world, overseen by a God who lives in our hurting, imperfect bodies, and who sees us as we are.

Cole is one of the most lyrical, perceptive and moving writers of her generation, at once cerebral and earthly, and always rooted in the body. We talk about Cole’s hair turning grey as a child, her wise grandmother and inspirational father, and the moments when she came to realise that both of them needed her care.

COLE LINKS

Online

This Here Flesh

Black Liturgies

All other Cole links HERE

KATHERINE LINKS

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