The Power of Black Excellence
AS THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF A SPIRITUALIST MINISTER, Ayana Contreras must have heard sermons inspired by the verse in Ezekiel that asks, “Can these dry bones live?”
In the Black church, that passage of scripture is invoked frequently as a reminder that even people and places that seem damaged, abandoned, and crumbling can be made new, whole, and beautiful. It’s often how you look at a circumstance, believers are taught, that can determine its meaning.
In her new book, , Contreras looks beyond the despair that grips the South and West
