Sunday, July 28, 2024, 2:00 pm (EST)
Join us for a book talk and discussion with Valerie Brown, Marisela Gomez, Kaira Jewel Lingo.
Their recently released book ‘Healing our Way Home’ is an intimate conversation between three spiritual friends about their journey of healing and justice.
As we work for social justice, we cannot let other’s hatred water the seeds of hatred in our own hearts. This is the deepest form of injustice. So what do we do? We heal our hatred, and greed, and delusion so that as we do our work of justice outside, we are not at risk of acting like the ‘enemy’. If we are to change these times of great injustice, it requires us to look deeply and heal the injustices we have inside ourselves.
— Marisela B Gomez
RSVP to bbmcspace@gmail.com to receive the zoom link.
Authors
Marisela B Gomez MD PHD is a mindfulness teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, public health scholar activist, preventive/alternative medicine physician. Of Afro-Latina ancestry, she lives in Baltimore involved in social justice activism and community building/research and co-facilitates mindfulness gatherings with Baltimore and Beyond Mindfulness Community for BIPOC and Social Activists. She is the author of Race, Class, Power and Organizing in East Baltimore, Healing our Way Home, and numerous book chapters in popular and scholarly publications. She has blogged at Huff Post and mariselgomez.com on the intersection of wisdom justice and mindfulness. Dr. Gomez is also a co-founder of the non-profit Village of Love and Resistance whose mission is to organize for community land control in historically marginalized communities in Baltimore MD.
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher of Black and biracial heritage with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruptionand co-author ofHealing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberationfrom Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.
Valerie Brown, JD, MA, PCC is an author, Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher, facilitator, and executive coach specializing in leadership development and mindfulness practices with a focus on diversity, social equity, and inclusion. A former lawyer and lobbyist, Valerie transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career into serving leaders and nonprofits to create trustworthy, authentic, compassionate, and connected workspaces. An award-winning author, her latest book Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022) received the Nautilus Gold Award for Eastern Spirituality for 2023, and Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation (Parallax Press, 2024). Her books include The Road that Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel, The Mindful School Leader: Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School (with Kirsten Olson, PhD), and Cultivating Happiness, Resilience, and Well-Being through Meditation, Mindfulness, and Movement: A Guide for Educators (contributor). She facilitates national and international gatherings and retreats for nonprofits and corporations and leads an annual pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain to celebrate the power of sacred places. She is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher (500 hours), engaging leaders to embody somatic wisdom and creativity. An accredited leadership coach, she is the Founder and Chief Mindfulness Officer of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, co-director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. She holds a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law, Master of Arts from Miami University (Ohio), and Bachelor of Arts from City University of New York. Of Afro-Cuban descent, Valerie is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and lives and tends a lively perennial home garden in New Hope, PA. To learn more about Valerie, visit www.valeriebrown.us.