Contemplating Now

Cassidy Hall
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  • Spirituality

Contemplating Now is a podcast with practical wisdom for surviving hard times. Cassidy Hall hosts conversations with activists, artists, authors, and other humans exploring the pain of the world, our need of people, the importance of play, and the beauty of practice.

  1. 04/21/2022

    Sacred Attention: A Conversation with Cole Arthur Riley

    In this episode with the founder of Black Liturgies, Cole Arthur Riley, we discuss the power of sacred attention, the importance of resting in the stories, and what it means to let the true self live in expanse. She defines contemplation as “a certain commitment to paying attention,” and mysticism as “a fidelity to magic,” and shares more about her contemplative writing process for her newly released book, This Here Flesh.  Bio: Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of the recently published book, This Here Flesh, Spirituality, liberation and the stories that make us.

  2. 03/15/2022

    The Unnamed Mystics: A conversation with Dr. Kimberly D. Russaw

    In this episode, Cassidy interviews her former professor of Hebrew Bible and African American Biblical Hermeneutics and Womanist Biblical Interpretation, Dr. Kimberly Russaw, who is now professor of Hebrew Bible at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. In this episode they discuss contemplation and mysticism in the Hebrew Bible, the ways in which contemplation can clear us, and new ways to think about mysticism and contemplation: “One way to think about it is a person is in the subject position when it comes to contemplation but in the object position when it comes to mysticism.” Dr. Russaw talks about her work as a Womanist scholar, expressing how part of her work as a professor and scholar is to “engage others in life we may have read over, may have missed or misread all along.” As Dr. Russaw mentioned in her essay “Wisdom in the Garden,”: "Womanist ways of reading the biblical text are subversive in that, by and large, they disrupt tightly held images of God and God's relationship to humanity.” Bio:  Dr. Kimberly D. Russaw is associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, where she serves as the chair of the African American Biblical Hermeneutics program unit. She is also an editorial board member of the Journal of Biblical Literature. Her many publications include Revisiting Rahab: Another Look at the Woman of Jericho, and “Undaunted: Reading Miriam for the Sisters They Tried to Erase” in Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition. Russaw has lectured or presented at events for PBS, Bible and Religions of the Ancient Near East, the Association of Theological Schools, and the Society of Biblical Literature, in addition to events at many universities and seminaries. She received her Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel from Vanderbilt University, and she is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

  3. 02/16/2022

    The Sacred Black Feminine: A Conversation with Dr. Christena Cleveland

    In this episode Dr. Cleveland shares the importance of recognizing the sacred Black feminine in Christian tradition and her own life. Her newly released book, "God is a Black Woman," weaves personal pilgrimage and societal reckoning to dismantle the cultural “whitemalegod” and uncover the sacred black feminine—and ultimately hope, healing, and liberation. Dr. Cleveland defines mysticism as a "connection with one’s inner spiritual authority," and names the ways in which mystics and mysticism has failed the importance of intersectionality and therefore cannot necessarily be considered activism. “I hesitate to connect mysticism with activism without a huge asterisk because the vast majority of people whoo call themselves mystics are really just  help white people connect with some sense of peace and they’re not in solitary with like Black trans women and they’re not trying to think about ‘well what does mysticism look like in this context.’ And they’re not working against the systems off capitalism that keep people working 80-hours a week just to put food on their table. They’re not working for any off the things that would create some space for other people to connect with mysticism.”

  4. 01/18/2022

    Opening Unto Mystery: A Conversation with Dr. Elyse Ambrose

    In this episode I sit down with blackqueer ethicist, creative, and author, Dr. Elyse Ambrose to discuss mysticism’s role in the everydayness of life. They name mysticism as “an openness to mystery… an orientation to life.” Dr. Ambrose explores the transformative power of truth-telling and the ways in which we mirror one another, naming the ways in which we avoid the difficulty of transformation "in the interest of preserving our comfort.” Dr. Ambrose describes contemplation as a "listening with one’s whole self. That’s attunement through the body, attunement through previous experiences, and being able to integrate all of that.”  Bio: Elyse Ambrose, Ph.D. (they/them) is a blackqueer ethicist, creative, and educator, whose research, art and community praxis lie at the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and spirituality. Ambrose’s forthcoming book, A Living Archive: Embodying a Black Queer Ethics (T&T Clark, Enquiries in Embodiment, Sexuality, and Social Ethics series) centers blackqueerness in constructing communal-based sexual ethics.  Ambrose currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Ethical Leadership and Society at Meadville Lombard Theological School as a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow.  You can find out more about them at elyseambrose.com

  5. 12/07/2021

    The Fierce Call of Love: A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis

    The Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis—Author, Activist, and Public Theologian—is the first female and first Black Senior Minister to serve in the progressive Collegiate Church, which dates to 1628. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Dr. Lewis and her activism work have been featured by the TODAY Show, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among many others. She is the creator of the MSNBC online show Just Faith and the PBS show Faith and Justice, in which she led important conversations about culture and current events. Her new podcast, Love.Period., is produced by the Center for Action and Contemplation. Raised mostly in Chicago, she now lives with her husband in Manhattan. Her most recent book, Fierce Love, is out now.

  6. 10/06/2021

    Breaking Barriers: A Conversation with Davelyn Hill

    In this episode, poet activist Davelyn Hill and I talk about the ways in which mysticism is intertwined with community and communal care, "I don't think I can say that I am a mystic without being connected to community." She also talked about contemplation's connectivity to mysticism and the ways in which “each person gives us another picture of who God is," therefore “when I devalue you I lose myself." She also reads two wonderful poems in this episode, one about a tree outside her window she lovingly named "Deloris."  Davelyn Hill is the Executive Director for Speaking Down Barriers. Speaking Down Barriers is a team of listeners, healers, artists, researchers, teachers, theologians, & creatives who work together using spoken word poetry, transformative dialogue, workshops, and deep listening, in order to move people, communities, organizations, & institutions towards an equitable world through healing & justice. In this Episode, Davelyn talks about the ways in which Speaking Down Barriers is a “tool of expansion” to open the room up and she shares that she sees mysticism as directly connected to community saying, "I don't think I can say that I am a mystic without being connected to community." Davelyn has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Converse College and is working on a Masters in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry. Alongside providing counseling services, she has led support groups, presented research, and conducted university presentations around racial trauma and oppression. She enjoys facilitating groups and retreats around grief and wholeness. Davelyn Hill, also known as Davelyn Athena is an author, poet, and intuitive painter. Davelyn’s poem “Deloris” was published by the Plant and Poetry journal. Her poem “Questions” was been featured online through Spark and Echo.

  7. 09/15/2021

    Breathing Mysticism: A Conversation with Dr. Angela N. Parker

    In this interview with Dr. Angela N. Parker, we discuss contemplation, mysticism and the movement of collective breath. On the topic of mysticism she said, “I think that’s what mysticism is for me: how do I replenish myself so that I can do what god has called me to do?” In this conversation she also explores the ways in which collective breath can allow us to move together in various forms of protest and collective care, “when I read Jesus in the biblical text I see Jesus gathering groups of people to actually walk against a Roman imperialistic supremacist system." Dr. Angela N. Parker a Biblical scholar currently teaching at McAfee School of Theology. In her research, Dr. Parker merges Womanist thought and postcolonial theory while reading biblical texts. Dr. Parker’s books include  If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. In this book, Dr. Parker draws from her experience as a Womanist New Testament scholar in order deconstruct one of White Christianity’s most pernicious lies: the conflation of biblical authority with the doctrines of inerrancy and infallibility. In her second book entitled Bodies, Violence, & Emotions: A Womanist Study of the Gospel of Mark, Dr. Parker thinks through the issue of imperial violence and its effects on the bodies of Jesus, John the Baptizer, and the woman suffering in a flow of blood in Mark 5. This study allows Dr. Parker to engage real lived experiences of violence and emotions in contemporary society. “Allow what you’re fighting for to shine through… Find what you can do and work with that hurt… We are all too valuable to burn out.”

  8. 08/23/2021

    The Privilege of Contemplation: A Conversation with Dr. Anthea Butler

    “I think the Christian practice of ‘just leave it to Jesus and everything is going to be alright’ is basically b******t.” Dr. Anthea Butler is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her latest book is White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. Her other books include Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making A Sanctified World. She is also a contributor to the forthcoming book, A New Origin story, The 1619 project out November 2021. In this episode Dr. Butler talks about the ways in which contemplation can often insinuate privilege, saying “even to say the word ‘contemplative’ at this moment is a word that says ‘privilege’… It means that you have time and most people don’t have time.” And reminds us of the everyday ways in which both contemplation and activism can be yielded to: “We tend to think about contemplation or activism on a big scale, I think we have to think about them as the everyday quotidian things that we do that can engender hope.” Quotes: “For me, being a contemplative doesn’t mean that you escape society or you escape the world but that you find a place to anchor yourself firmly first of all and then secondarily take care of those things in the ways in which you need to take care of them…”  “We tend to think about contemplation or activism on a big scale, I think we have to think about them as the everyday quotidian things that we do that can engender hope.” “How can you be contemplative and take a step back when the situation and the society and the murderous ways in which black people get treated in this country continue to happen on a regular loop?” “even to say the word ‘contemplative’ at this moment is a word that says ‘privilege’… It means that you have time and most people don’t have time.”

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About

Contemplating Now is a podcast with practical wisdom for surviving hard times. Cassidy Hall hosts conversations with activists, artists, authors, and other humans exploring the pain of the world, our need of people, the importance of play, and the beauty of practice.

Information

  • Creator
    Cassidy Hall
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Cassidy Hall
  • Show Website
    Contemplating Now