Black contemplative practices are often misunderstood, especially when they are appropriated, and sometimes they are underestimated as simply entertainment or frivolity.

In her new book, Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living, Dr. Kamilah Majied shows people from all spiritual traditions and cultural backgrounds how to use meditative practices to reclaim joy. She writes, “Our spirits, bodies, minds, and hearts need to be buoyant to navigate the unceasing waves of grief, fear, doubt, prejudice, and devaluation that we witness and often experience internally, interpersonally, and communally.”

Joyfully Just is about tapping into that buoyancy, that levity, with diverse meditative practices, highlighting practices, teachings, and insights from Buddhism and Black contemplative traditions. Black contemplative traditions include practices that bring forth insight and joy, including those shared through language and dialect practices; Black poetry and literature; dance and communicative kinesics (movement and gesture) practices; and music, such as Gospel, Blues, Rock, Jazz, R&B, and Hip-Hop.

In this virtual event on June 13 at 2PM ET, Dr. Majied will join Tricycle’s Web Editor Mike Sheffield to discuss how these practices can lead to insight and offer us guidance for wise, courageous living. She will do a deep dive into Black cultural traditions and how these manifest wisdom and mirror Buddhist insights regarding interdependence and the transmutation of suffering.