About China Galland
China Galland, M.A., is the prize-winning author of several non-fiction works including "Love Cemetery, Unburying the Secret History of Slaves" (HarperOne), "Longing for Darkness, Tara and the Black Madonna" (Penguin). She’s completing a documentary film, "Resurrecting Love," about an East Texas African American community’s struggle to reclaim Love Cemetery, the historic burial ground they own. "The Bond Between Women, A Journey to Fierce Compassion" (Riverhead/Penguin), was chosen as one of the best five books on Spirituality by the annual “Books For a Better Life Award.”
Galland has been a Professor in Residence at the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, the largest consortium of Christian schools of theology in the U.S, as well as a Research Associate, and adjunct faculty. “Art, Darkness, and the Womb of God,” the graduate level intensive, grew out of her pioneering work on the Divine Feminine cross-culturally. She has been affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union for over 20 years. A riveting storyteller and public speaker, Galland has lectured at Harvard University, Columbia, Cornell, Bowling Green University, and Prescott College among others. She led pilgrimages to the Divine Feminine in Nepal, India, France and Spain, appeared on “Good Morning America,” Bloomberg TV, PBS, NPR, and PRI's "To the Best of Our Knowledge."
Resurrecting Love 
Hello China,
Good to hear from you! Merry Christmas to you and family. I read your blog. It looks like you gave it “DEEP” thinking while trying to get over this upcoming new presidency. For me, the night of Nov. 8 was trying. My sister had to take two strong headache pills before she went to bed. Unbelievable! This is what I wrote on the morning of Nov. 9. I chose to be positive.
We have a new president! Congratulations to our new president, President Elect Donald Trump! I will always back the Presidency, therefore, I pray that President Elect Donald Trump will do what is best for our country!
I got numerous positive responses back from my Facebook friends. I know most had to bite their lips. Most wanted to scream & shout. I’m hearing several Democrats are still having trouble accepting the outcome of this election & understandably so. Donald Trump was even surprised! He was ready to take to twitter and go “hog wild!” Really, I think “The Donald” will self destruct. He can’t help himself! I suspect there will be NUMEROUS demonstrations next year. If he thinks the Democrats will sit quietly, he’s having a bad dream. He tweets, “The election is over, let’s move on!” Wrong! Not going to happen, especially with him giving President Obama so much hell for 8 years. His cabinet is troubling. What I mainly hope is there is not too much anarchy. If there is anarchy, many people will be hurt and heaven forbid killed.
Take Care, Archie
Sent from my iPad
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Merry Christmas, Archie…
Glad to hear from you! Resurrecting Love lives on, lots to share but have a meeting shortly. I think of you so often, you and Estrus, and I remain grateful that you and Estrus were willing to join me in Marshall at the opening of the film school at Wiley this past summer.
Whoever was orchestrating the event for Nate had no idea what they were doing when they cancelled our appearance at the Film School opening – you and Estrus and me.
Jerry Cargill had bought and distributed the Love Cemetery Unburying the Secret History of Slaves book for all the Wiley Film School students attendees and that was great. Love was there and given out to do its work.
But meeting you, Archie Rison, and our esteemed colleague, Estrus Tucker, two African American men who actively care for their family cemeteries as well as other African American cemeteries, would have been great, in my estimation. We all need
wise elders and I think those kids from all over the country could have benefited greatly from meeting you two — members of the world community who’ve traveled afar, men who still come home and say we need to “honor our Ancestors” here, in our own backyard. This is still a critical message for young people.
Doris and I continue to be in touch often. She’s moved, not far, but closer to one of her sons. She’s now 2 doors down from one of her twins which I think is great. Hope the two of you get to visit. Much to sort out about next steps… Road is washed out again it seems.
We know we need to schedule a cleanup for next March, 2017. I think it’s safe for me to say on Doris’ behalf as well as my own, thank you for all the help you’ve given us Archie… ! Doris and I are both grateful, as is my family, everybody appreicates how you’ve joined in our commitment to honor the ancestors, and helping us build a model that can be replicated anywhere.
Looking forward to sharing more in the New Year, especially after this election. Between all the police killings of the last two years and the poisons that have surfaced since this election…. Even white people are finally “getting it” – that racism is still very much a part of our society, front and center. The suppression of the vote, espescially in minority communities show that racism has a chokehold on democracy. Resurrecting Love is an antidote, a multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-faith path we can walk together to honor the Ancestors, the earth, this buried history of African Americans, enslavement, and Native Americans, and each other.
ON LOVE:
Meanwhile, I’ve been reading:
Rachel Elizabeth Hardings glorious new book that she wrote in part with her extraordinary mother, Rosemary Freeney Harding, just as Rosemary was dying. Rachel’s father/Rosemary’s husband, was Vincent Harding of the Civil Rights movement. Both Vincent and Rosemary were close friends and colleagues of Dr. King’s. Vincent was also Rachel’s father. It’s a must read — Remnants, a Memoir of Spirit, Activism, and Mothering (Duke: 2015).
Two more books and an article on these topics:
Another must read, if you haven’t done so already, is Dr. James H. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree is utterly brilliant and critical to any thinking Christian in the U.S. Lots of us in this country like to think we’re Christian, but I dare us all, myself included, to read the venerable Dr. Cone’s extraordinary book (one of many) and not be challenged by Dr. Cone’s voice and the arguments he’s marshalled there in. The Cross and the Lynching Tree are not separate phenomenon in the United States. Christ died a lynching victim nailed to a tree. Those of us claiming to be Christian have to take up this painful truth , in the name of Jesus, and let it transform our lives.
Cone is the considered the Father of Black Theology and is still teaching at Union Seminary in New York.
Integration, the Psychology and Mythology of Martin Luther King, Jr., and His (Unfinished) Therapy With the Soul of America by Jennifer Leigh Selig (Mandorla Books, 2013). As a white person, this further illuminated my experience and grounded it even more deeply in the Civil Rights movement that’s begun again today.
Jennifer Leigh Selig’s article, “Borne Forward Ceasellessly Into Love: A Hermeneutics of Love Exemplified by Martin Luther King, Jr.” (In the Journal of Humanstic Psychology, Volume 56 (3), 238-262, by Jennifer Leigh Selig © 2015.
http://jhp.sagepub.com/content/56/3/238.short
MERRY MERRY, ARCHIE, AND ALL OUR FRIENDS!
MORE GOOD NEWS TO FOLLOW…. !
China
China Galland
WEB http://www.resurrectinglovemovie.org
BLOG http://www.resurrectinglove.org
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