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A Place of Rage: Book Club with Alexandra Cain, M.Div

A Place of Rage: Book Club with Alexandra Cain, M.Div

🗓️ March 1, 2026 @ 1:00 – 2:30 pm ET

📍Online

A book club conversation with the author of the Substack newsletter, Constant Craving.

Participants are encouraged to read Chapter 1 of The Fire Inside and come ready to think and co-create with fellow readers.

The opening chapter of this book turns toward Palestine and asks what solidarity actually requires of us. Drawing on ancestors like Audre Lorde and James Baldwin, Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad models a reflective process that refuses innocence and moves toward accountable action.

Harvard Book Store Discussion with Dr. Tracey Hucks

Harvard Book Store Discussion with Dr. Tracey Hucks

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🗓️ March 6th, 2026 @ 7:00pm ET

📍In-person

🗺️ 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA

Harvard Book Store welcomes Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad—Founding Director of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies and a Visiting Affiliate Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Culture, Society, and Religion—for a discussion of her new book, The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. She will be joined in conversation by Dr. Tracey Hucks—Suzanne Young Murray Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Firestorm Collective Discussion and Book Signing

Firestorm Collective Discussion and Book Signing

🗓️ Feb 21, 2026 @ 2:00pm – 3:30pm ET

📍In-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.

Defining Your Role in the Fight Against State Violence

Defining Your Role in the Fight Against State Violence

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At the time of writing, there is great peril in our country; there is also great promise.

The level of state violence against immigrants and the protestors supporting them provokes an undeniably just rage.

As Audre Lorde taught us, it is healthy to give this rage oxygen.

It is communicating something important: an urgency, a need to stand against injustice, a need to insist upon safety and protection for all.

Malaprop’s Bookstore Discussion

Malaprop’s Bookstore Discussion

🗓️ Feb 11, 2026 @ 6:00pm – 7:00pm ET

📍In-person

🗺️ Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, 55 Haywood St, Asheville, NC

Join us in-store when local scholar and author Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad presents her newest book, The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. 

American Writers Museum Discussion

American Writers Museum Discussion

🗓️ Jan 29, 2026 @ 7:00pm ET

📍Online

Black, queer, feminist, Buddhist: The Fire Inside casts a fresh new light on the radical literary legacies of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde.

Join us online for a discussion with Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad about her new book.

Uplifting Black Nichiren Buddhist Voices Closing Thoughts

Uplifting Black Nichiren Buddhist Voices Closing Thoughts

Listening to the transformative experiences of Black Nichiren Buddhists in this podcast series reminds us that Black people have confronted extraordinary levels of oppression over centuries and have survived. These practitioners ask, ‘how do we confront this onslaught beyond expressing fear and outrage?’ We are encouraged by these practitioners—by their wisdom and stamina, by their singing and chanting, by their emphasis on joy.

Buddhists of African Descent on Creating a Just Society with Michael Belton

Buddhists of African Descent on Creating a Just Society with Michael Belton

This final episode explores the connection between self-improvement and justice. Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of Nichiren Buddhism, believed that Buddhism only has meaning when it effects positive change in society. Rima Vesely-Flad speaks with Michael Belton, a founding co-architect of the association, Buddhists of African Descent, about how this teaching has helped him develop throughout his life.