Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human

A collection of prayers, poems, and spiritual practices centered on the Black interior world. Cole Arthur Riley created Black Liturgies as a digital project connecting spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black memory, and the Black body, born from her search for a spirituality she could trust amid national racial violence, pandemic isolation, and anti-Black rhetoric in Christian spaces. The book brings together hundreds of new prayers alongside letters, poems, meditation questions, breath practices, scriptures, and writings from Black literary ancestors. It offers forty-three liturgies that can be practiced individually or communally, inviting readers to reflect on shared experiences of wonder, rest, rage, and repair. The collection includes rituals for holidays like Lent and Juneteenth. Intended for those healing from violent communities, those who have left white Christian nationalism or religious homophobia and transphobia, and anyone seeking meaning in a world of both beauty and terror, Black Liturgies presents a vision of healing and empowerment.