Mindful Authors' Speak: On Black Buddhism and Radical Thought

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Join author Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad for a conversation with Rhonda Magee, exploring a Dharma of liberation, offering timely lessons to help us meet this moment, using the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin to provide real world examples of this dharma in practice.

Dr. Vesely-Flad’s latest book The Fire Inside, examines the writings of Lorde and Baldwin through a Dharmic lens, and discusses how two of America’s greatest literary voices reflect—and expand—Buddhism’s most timeless truths toward justice and liberation. In this conversation with mindfulness teacher Rhonda V. Magee, she will share how the writers’ enduring legacies show that liberation depends not only on organizing and mass movements, but the generative power of inner well-being, authenticity, art, and embodiment. She invites us to examine Baldwin and Lorde through key Buddhist principles such as suffering as teacher, impermanence, karma, anger, and compassion in order to deepen and enhance our own understanding of Buddhism, and liberation.

Through her work and writing, Dr. Vesely-Flad centers and celebrates Black, queer, radical thought and invites us to embrace the ways our inner lives, creative fire, sensuality, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation.