Creating a Subversive Sisterhood of Saints + Holy Women Icons Project With Angela Yarber — EP96

Angela brings forward the Goddess within along with the stories and lives of women of color and queer women through history that have been often hidden or left in the dark corners! She supports women who have been hurt or confined by versions of spirituality, those who are exhausted by the larger constructs that can oppress, and those who bring their own empowering life forward through her life journey as well as her programs at Holy Women Icons Project.

In this podcast, Angela discusses bringing forward stories that call up a reflection of our self-worth, love, resilience, and strength; her experiences of microaggression in the spiritual community, and her experiences of being a queer clergywoman for 14 years. We have discussions about how the spirituality that was handed to her was a version that felt too confining for the essence of her being that was passionate about dance, arts, and writing.

More in this episode:

  • Body shaming
  • How sensuality and sexuality are spiritual
  • Sharing stories and lives of women of color without appropriating or stealing
  • Everyone deserves to be surrounded by beauty
  • Beauty and inspiration is the end goal of justice!
  • How self-love and care are like a power saw — the sharpening of the blade, the battery recharge, and looking at the power source

Rev. Dr. Angela Yarber is author, artist, and Executive Director of the Holy Women Icons Project, a non-profit seeking to empower marginalized women by telling the stories of revolutionary holy women through art, writing, and special events. She holds a Ph.D. in Art and Religion and has been a Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Professor of Divinity.

The author of seven books, four of her books were listed in the Top LGBTQ Religion Books, and she was a finalist for the International Penelope Niven Creative Non-Fiction Award. As an artist, Angela has painted over 100 folk-feminist icons of revolutionary holy women from history and mythology; these icons are in galleries and homes all over the world.

After fourteen years as a queer clergywoman, her job became toxic, so Angela left the church and traveled full-time with her wife and toddler, discerning how to best transform her painting, writing, and retreats into a non-profit. After two years of full-time travel, they made Hawai’i Island their home where they also run a small, off-grid eco-retreat center. Here, Angela offers empowering women’s retreats and partners with universities and seminaries to offer land-based intensive classes on the island.

Her upcoming retreat, Holy Woman Within New Year’s Retreat for Spiritual Creatives is from 12/31/19–1/4/20 in Volcano, HI. It is an opportunity to usher in the new year and new decade with intention through guided icon painting, journaling, yoga, rituals, and radical self-care for collective liberation with other justice-minded spiritual women and genderqueer folx. Her work has been featured on NPR’s Progressive Spirit, Maya Angelou’s Memorial Celebration, and the television show Tiny House Nation. For more of her revolutionary work, visit holywomenicons.com.

Please use the player below to listen or download this episode. To make it easier for you to get new episodes on your phone, you can also subscribe for new episodes on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and other platforms.

Sponsored by The Ally With Death Experiential

End the year with letting go, letting die, and releasing what’s needed to make more space for life with the Ally With Death Audio Experiential. This is the audio-guided version that is set to moody and provocative music to bring you deeply into the experience of death and letting die so that you can rebirth and clear the clutter that is ready to be transformed into the compost for life-giving next steps.

Get the Ally With Death Audio Experiential at CandiceWu.com/death

Contact

Angela Yarber

Website

Audience Gift

The offered retreat is passed, please get all the information about future retreats at: Website – tehomcenter.org

Links and Resources

Show Notes

  • 0:00 Intro
  • 1:32 About This Episode
  • 3:10 Sponsored by the Ally With Death Experiential
  • 5:36 Introducing Angela
  • 5:54 Opening
  • 6:57 From Performing Arts to Religious Christian Conversion Experience and Back
  • 12:06 Mention — Story of Lilith (First Woman in the Garden of Eden)
  • 13:49 About the Holy Women Icons Project
  • 16:29 Learning to Be What We Can’t See: How Angela Makes These Women From History Visible
  • 19:06 The Subversive Sisterhood of Saints: Who is Guiding Angela Today?
  • 19:43 The Story of Pauli Murray
  • 26:12 Lifting the Women of Color Because They Show a Resilience We Rarely Find in Other Places
  • 27:22 Finding Yourself in Queer / Women of Color Stories Even Though Angela is a White Queer Woman (Alternative: Lifting Others Without the Need to Shine a Light on Oneself or Appropriating)
  • 30:10 Sexuality and Sensuality in the Spiritual Understanding
  • 31:05 Mention — Shulamite Story: The History of the Belly Dance
  • 36:58 Reclaiming Your Define Connection in Yourself and Everything — “Educating the Mind Without Educating the Heart is No Education at All.” —Aristotle
  • 39:46 Ritual Exercises Mean Much More When Done Than Reading About It
  • 42:19 Angela’s Upcoming Retreat: Holy Woman Within: A New Year’s Retreat for Spiritual Creatives
  • 42:35 Mention — Darshan Mendoza
  • 44:12 Women’s Empowerment Work — Like a Power Saw — Let’s Switch Out the Power System
  • 53:14 Preaching in All Kinds of Different Ways That This World is Beautiful and Injust, Let’s Change That.
  • 54:42 Creating More Expansion: Burning Down in Creation
  • 55:41 Special Retreat Offer for Angela’s Holy Women Retreat
  • 57:38 Closing Blessing by Angela Yarber
  • 58:22 Find Angela’s Work Online
  • 59:24 Outro
  • 1:00:01 The Holy Women Icons Project and Retreat
  • 1:00:23 The Embody Newsletter
  • 1:00:44 Sendoff

Intro Music by Nick Werber

 

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