Firestorm Collective Discussion and Book Signing

February 4, 2026 | Events

🗓️ Feb 21, 2026 @ 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET

đź“ŤIn-person

🗺️ Firestorm Collective, 1022 Haywood Rd, Asheville NC

To celebrate the release of The Fire Inside, our co-op hosts author and scholar Rima Vesely-Flad for a discussion of the radical literary legacies of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde.

Dr. Vesely-Flad will read from the book, take questions from the audience, and sign copies of The Fire Inside.

More from Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad

James Baldwin argued that racism is not a “Black problem” but a white fear-driven delusion that scapegoats Black people and evades interior work. Drawing on Baldwin’s essays and testimony, we discuss his critique of white moral pretentiousness, evasion, and the projection of shame and fear—especially the fear of death—onto Black bodies. We also see how Baldwin’s analysis relates to Buddhist teaching on dependent origination from the Rice Seedling Sutra.

 

In this dharma talk, we investigate the role of Sati—which is translated as knowing, awareness, presence, or mindfulness—in the writings of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, in conversation with early Buddhist writings.
In this dharma talk, we understand the weight of suffering through the eyes of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. We learn how Baldwin gleaned the difference between suffering due to the violence of racism, and suffering that is central to the human experience. We learn about Lorde’s embrace of the idea that pain can teach us something important, but that we need not suffer uselessly.

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