Watch Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Angela Dews, Valarie Brown, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde Discuss Black Buddhist Writing (LIVE with Q&A)
The Live Call with Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Angela Dews, Valarie Brown, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde will be hosted on Zoom on Tuesday, February 23rd at 1pm EST | See Your Timezone. The call recording will be posted here within 24 hours after the initial airing.
If you are unable to join on Zoom, you can also access the Youtube Livestream below!
Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Angela Dews, Valerie Brown, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Black Buddhist Writing (With Q&A)
About This Session
Although Black Americans have been practicing Buddhism for many decades, until recently it was not easy to find published writing by Black Buddhists. In the last few decades, and accelerating over the last few years, however, Black Buddhist writers have been publishing across the spectrum, from national online forums and magazines to trade books and in academia. In this panel, summit host and multi-book author Ayo Yetunde talks with three other Black Buddhist authors about how they write and what writing means to them. Audience members will be invited to submit questions to the panelists for Q&A.
About Shanté Paradigm Smalls
Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls (They/Them/Theirs) is a student, practitioner, and teacher in the Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhist tradition. Shanté began studying and practicing Buddhism at age 17 and has practiced in Zen, Sokka Gakkai International, Shambhala, and Bhumisparsha communities. Shanté trained from 2009 to 2015 in the Shambhala lineage as a Buddhist and meditation teacher and was authorized to teach meditation and buddhadharma in 2015. Shanté is focused on the healing impact of meditation in BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and incarcerated and recovery communities. Shanté teaches regularly on Weekly Dharma Gathering Online which they co-founded and curate. Shanté is currently a student of both Lama Rod Owens and Lama Justin von Budjoss co-founding teachers of Bhumisparsha.
You can find out more about Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls on their website and find links to their work here.
About Angela Dews
Angela Dews is a Black Buddhist in recovery who found the dharma on retreat from journalism, politics and government. She took her broken heart to a POC retreat, and her first teacher, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, said: "Harmony is possible. Your way of life is a message. Don’t think because you are poor you are helpless. Anger is not the only source of energy. Compassion is a verb. Mindful consumption is essential for community building." She is building community in her Harlem Insight sangha and at the Mother Ship, New York Insight Meditation Center.
You can connect with her and The Harlem Insight teaching team through weekly guided meditation and discussion about what the Buddha taught on Facebook. You can also read her book Still, in the City, a collection of stories about the fierce practice of urban Buddhism — when a Brooklyn subway becomes a moving temple and when a magnificent ficus tree offers a meditator shade in Praca Dom Emanuel in Brazil.
About Valerie Brown
Valerie Brown is an international retreat leader, writer, speaker, ICF-accredited leadership coach, Principal of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, specializing in application and integration of mindfulness and leadership, and faculty member at Georgetown’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. She transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career as a lawyer-lobbyist to human-scale, equity-centered work with leaders and teams to foster trustworthy and authentic connections. She is as an ordained Buddhist Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition founded by Thich Nhat Hanh and as a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). As certified Kundalini yoga teacher, she helps leaders discover the wisdom of the body. She leads an annual transformational pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain, to celebrate the power of sacred places.
You can learn more about her work on Lead Smart Coaching
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD is the co-editor of Black and Buddhist. She is a chaplain and pastoral counselor, co-founder of Center of the Heart, a spiritual wellness organization that focuses on body, behavior, and beliefs. She is also founder of Audre: Spiritual Care for Women with Cancer. Ayo has written for Lion's Roar magazine and has published other books on Buddhism.
Ayo's articles on Buddhism can be found on Lion's Roar and Ayo's books can be found here.
Enjoying the Summit?
Support this Project and Get Unlimited Access to All Summit Recordings!
Click Here to Learn More!Shanté Paradigm Smalls, Angela Dews, and Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Black Buddhist Writing (With Q&A)
This video is no longer available for free viewing!
Want to support this project and learn more about owning the summit recordings?
If you purchased the Summit Recordings, click here to login.
About This Session
Although Black Americans have been practicing Buddhism for many decades, until recently it was not easy to find published writing by Black Buddhists. In the last few decades, and accelerating over the last few years, however, Black Buddhist writers have been publishing across the spectrum, from national online forums and magazines to trade books and in academia. In this panel, summit host and multi-book author Ayo Yetunde talks with two other Black Buddhist authors about how they write and what writing means to them. Audience members will be invited to submit questions to the panelists for Q&A.
About Shanté Paradigm Smalls
Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls (They/Them/Theirs) is a student, practitioner, and teacher in the Tantric (Vajrayana) Buddhist tradition. Shanté began studying and practicing Buddhism at age 17 and has practiced in Zen, Sokka Gakkai International, Shambhala, and Bhumisparsha communities. Shanté trained from 2009 to 2015 in the Shambhala lineage as a Buddhist and meditation teacher and was authorized to teach meditation and buddhadharma in 2015. Shanté is focused on the healing impact of meditation in BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and incarcerated and recovery communities. Shanté teaches regularly on Weekly Dharma Gathering Online which they co-founded and curate. Shanté is currently a student of both Lama Rod Owens and Lama Justin von Budjoss co-founding teachers of Bhumisparsha.
You can find out more about Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls on their website and find links to their work here.
About Angela Dews
Angela Dews is a Black Buddhist in recovery who found the dharma on retreat from journalism, politics and government. She took her broken heart to a POC retreat, and her first teacher, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, said: "Harmony is possible. Your way of life is a message. Don’t think because you are poor you are helpless. Anger is not the only source of energy. Compassion is a verb. Mindful consumption is essential for community building." She is building community in her Harlem Insight sangha and at the Mother Ship, New York Insight Meditation Center.
You can connect with her and The Harlem Insight teaching team through weekly guided meditation and discussion about what the Buddha taught on Facebook. You can also read her book Still, in the City, a collection of stories about the fierce practice of urban Buddhism — when a Brooklyn subway becomes a moving temple and when a magnificent ficus tree offers a meditator shade in Praca Dom Emanuel in Brazil.
About Valerie Brown
Valerie Brown is an international retreat leader, writer, speaker, ICF-accredited leadership coach, Principal of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, specializing in application and integration of mindfulness and leadership, and faculty member at Georgetown’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. She transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career as a lawyer-lobbyist to human-scale, equity-centered work with leaders and teams to foster trustworthy and authentic connections. She is as an ordained Buddhist Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition founded by Thich Nhat Hanh and as a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). As certified Kundalini yoga teacher, she helps leaders discover the wisdom of the body. She leads an annual transformational pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain, to celebrate the power of sacred places.
You can learn more about her work on Lead Smart Coaching.
About Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD
Pamela Ayo Yetunde, JD, ThD is the co-editor of Black and Buddhist. She is a chaplain and pastoral counselor, co-founder of Center of the Heart, a spiritual wellness organization that focuses on body, behavior, and beliefs. She is also founder of Audre: Spiritual Care for Women with Cancer. Ayo has written for Lion's Roar magazine and has published other books on Buddhism.
Ayo's articles on Buddhism can be found on Lion's Roar and Ayo's books can be found here.
Just received the email so missed the program. Hopefully it will be available to watch in my time. As a new writer and as an ole’ person, would really like to know what was said.
Thank you for another inspiring panel. I really liked the reminder to ask one’s self “What is it that only I can do?
the writing workshop will not come up on my computer. says error.
Same here. “Error”
No audio
I was blessed by “We have to treat our writing like a practice and make the commitment to write “something” every day…without judging it. Also, the comment: “What is it that only I can do?” These three women are a real inspiration to me and they open up my vision of what I can write and do. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. And to Ayo for hosting all this….Than You.
The Dharma is a refuge, writing is a refuge, listening to BIPOC writers speak on their craft is a refuge…thank you for your voices and bringing this home! Very inspiring!