A celebration of the voices of women of
color in prayer
Women of color pray and have prayed out of
necessity for survival, out of love for the Divine and because
we believe in the power of prayer. Prayer has been the
prevailing force behind the education of our children,
protection and courage for our men, hope for our daughters and
the balm that heals sorrows.
—from the Introduction
Prayers by women around the
world—from China and Japan, to Syria and Ghana—to
African American, Asian American, Native American and Hispanic
women in the United States including:
Teresa Palomo Acosta • Yolanda Adams
• Rabi’a Al-Adawiyya • Paula Gunn Allen •
Savitri Bess • Mary McLeod Bethune • Irene I. Blea
• Sandra Cisneros • Marian Wright Edelman •
Rachelle Ferrell • Monique Greenwood • Joy Harjo
• Linda Hogan • Patricia Locke • Janice
Mirikitani • Toni Morrison • Naomi Quinonez •
Della Reese • Cathy Song • Susan L. Taylor •
Sojourner Truth • Harriet Tubman • Iyanla Vanzant
• Phillis Wheatley • CeCe Winans • Empress
Yamatohime ...
and many others
This beautiful collection of prayers will
take you on a journey into the spiritual walk of women of color
around the world—including Asia, the Middle East and
Africa—as well as Native American, African American,
Asian American and Hispanic women in the United States. Through
these prayers, poetry, lyrics, meditations and affirmations,
you will share in the strong and undeniable connection that
women of color share with God. As you delve into the words of
unwavering faith, perseverance, resistance, celebration and
communion with God and family that fill each page, you will
find your ideas about prayer challenged and your own prayer
life inspired and renewed.
“Not privileging one voice or theme
over another … provides us with words that can be prayed,
announced, sung or moaned. This is a book I can teach, preach
and read before going to bed.”
—Rev.
Monica A. Coleman, PhD, director of
womanist religious studies at Bennett College for Women, author
of The Dinah Project: A Handbook
for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence
“Passionate…. Paints a
multicultural, interfaith, moving tapestry of embodied
spirituality by women—famous, ordinary and anonymous.
Invites and provokes the multivocality of resistance,
creativity, love and relationality in the process of women
becoming, the world over.”
—Dr.
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, professor of
theology and women’s studies, director of women’s
studies, Shaw University Divinity School
Christal M. Jackson was named one of “Thirty Leaders of the
Future” by Ebony magazine in 1999. She is the founder of Sisters
with Wings, a nonprofit organization serving women and
children; a former intern with the Children’s Defense
Fund; and a member of Windsor Village United Methodist Church.
She graduated from Duke University with a master’s degree
in theological studies and lives in Houston, Texas.
