Bonus Episode 43: #GriefAND Intersectionality featuring Latasha Morrison. LATASHA MORRISON is a bridge-builder, reconciler, and a compelling voice in the fight for racial justice. Her book, Be the Bridge, released in 2019, is a NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, ECPA BESTSELLER, and is the ECPA 2021 Christian Book of the Year. In 2016, Tasha founded Be the Bridge, a non-profit organization equipping more than 1,000 sub-groups across five countries to serve as ambassadors of racial reconciliation. Numerous organizations have recognized her as a leading social justice advocate, including Facebook’s Community Leadership Program, Forbes, and EBONY magazine. A native of North Carolina, Tasha earned degrees in human development and business leadership. She resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Bonus Episode 42: #GriefAND Thanksgiving featuring Patricia Raybon. Patricia is an award-winning Colorado author, essayist, and novelist who writes stories of faith and mystery. Her debut 1920s mystery novel, All That Is Secret: An Annalee Spain Mystery, was a Parade magazine fall 2021 “Mysteries We Love” selection and a PBS Masterpiece’s “Best Mystery Books of 2021: As Recommended by Bestselling Authors.” As an African American follower of Christ, she encourages people globally to love God and each other. patriciaraybon.com

Resources:

My First White Friend by Patricia Raybon

Episode 41: #GriefAND Generation Z featuring Medgina Saint-Elien. Medgina is a writer and creative who is called to highlight the elephant in the room throughout her work. This Haitian American poet is a Fulbright Scholar and an emerging voice of direction in the media industry. She redefines beauty at Byrdie Beauty, Snapchat, and beyond to amplify the stories of Women of Color.

Connect via her Instagram account. Hyperlink to her writing column: https://www.housebeautiful.com/author/228418/medgina-saint-elien/

Resources:

Netflix documentary, A Social Dilemma

Episode 40: #Grief, Poetry AND Artistic Expression featuring Grace P. Cho. Grace is a Korean American writer, poet, speaker, and acquisitions editor at Revell. She creates space for people to be known, nurtured, and challenged through her work and desires to elevate women of color’s voices in the publishing industry. She is also the co-editor of Take Heart: 100 Devotions to Seeing God When Life’s Not Okay, co-author of Empowered: More of Him for All of You, and the author of the (in)courage Bible studies, Courageous Influence and Create in Me a Heart of Wisdom.

Episode 39: Grief, Beauty, and Artistic Expression with Octavia Ink. Octavia is a printmaker, illustrator, and graphic designer. Originally from Chicago, Octavia graduated from DePaul University with a BFA in graphic design. Now located in Grand Rapids and also a local activist, she uses her artwork as a fundraiser for marginalized groups around the city. She believes in art as a form of expression, using her art to represent those who are underrepresented while bringing social justice issues to the forefront. As an illustrator, Octavia is driven and inspired by Black women. She wants to see women that look like her at the helm and she reflects that in her art. Constantly utilizing bright colors and dynamic movement in each piece, Octavia loves to incorporate flowers throughout her work. Pushing the message that we should give ourselves our flowers and celebrate growth and joy. www.prettyininkpress.com

Bonus Episode 38: #GriefAND Lent featuring Tish Harrison Warren. Tish is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year) and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year and 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year). Currently, Tish writes a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, and she is a columnist for Christianity Today. Her articles and essays have appeared in Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. For over a decade, Tish has worked in ministry settings as a campus minister with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, as an associate rector, and with addicts and those in poverty through various churches and non-profit organizations. Now, Tish serves as Writer in Residence at Resurrection South Austin. She is a founding member of The Pelican Project and a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives with her husband and three children in the Austin, Texas area.

Episode 37: #GriefAND Community featuring Sandra Maria Van Opstal. Sandra is a second-generation Latina pastor, activist, author, and a powerful leading voice on the intersection of faith and justice. She is executive director of Chasing Justice, a BIPOC-led movement that mobilizes Christians to live justly. Sandra’s distinctiveness comes from working in both local and global contexts as a practitioner and academic, which has solidified her calling to disrupt oppressive systems within the church and center marginalized voices. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is currently pursuing doctoral work in Urban Leadership and Transformation. Sandra is the author of The Next Worship, as well as contributor to the New York Times bestselling book A Rhythm of Prayer.

Episode 36: #GriefAND White Supremacy featuring Gregory Thompson. Gregory is a pastor, scholar, writer, producer, and amateur cook whose work focuses on racial healing in America. He currently serves as Executive Director of Voices Underground, an initiative to build a national memorial to the Underground Railroad in Southeast Pennsylvania. Dr. Thompson is also a Research Fellow in African American Cultural Heritage at Lincoln University (HBCU), the Visiting Theologian for Mission at Grace Mosaic Church in Washington DC, and the co-author (with Duke Kwon) of Reparations: A Christian Call to Repentance and Repair (Brazos Press, April 2021). He received his PhD in the Theology, Ethics, and Culture program in the University of Virginia’s department of Religious Studies, where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther King, Jr.