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.
