Authenticity and Imagination in the Face of Oppression

Book excerpt: To live authentically and with integrity in the face of a rampant oppression, which daily seeks to sequester the spirit and rape the soul, one must recognize themselves as one with the God and in this move each day with an authority grounded in a great mystical love which really has no words. Authenticity and Imagination in the Face of Oppression is an autobiography of faith. It is the life of a black transgender woman living a life of faith in the face of institutional and economic oppressions, and the cultural and social stigma of racism and transgender phobia. This book emerges then as a strategy for liberation by nourishing the soul through the provocative acts of prayer, memory, sharing, and acting, thus making real a sure hope grounded in the divine call of Isaiah 61:1. Authenticity and Imagination in the Face of Oppression is a hopeful discourse on mysticism in the context of loving one's God and oneself within a lived communal reality of earth embodiment and the development of a sacred space of irresistible hope.