Read, Write, and Pray with Danté Stewart: Part Two
As we engage more deeply with the ancient streams of art and faith, how they inform one another, and how all of this can create profound new possibilities for belonging, we need ways to respond. The Spiritual Direction for Writers Read, Write, & Pray series uses themes and excerpts from various books, essays, and articles to help you respond to writing by a specific author.
I have not worked with Danté Stewart to create this series, but I did host him and Nefertiti Robinson for an online conversation in September 2022, which informed how I designed this particular Read, Write, & Pray series. You don’t need to own a copy of Danté Stewart’s first book, Shoutin’ in the Fire, to complete this series, but you should definitely buy his book anyway! You can buy it here.
I’m excited to invite you to explore Stewart’s work in meaningful ways. I hope Read, Write, & Pray with Danté Stewart helps you make space to notice God’s presence in your life and creative work. I hope it gives you opportunities to discover how making art and engaging with art help you belong to yourself, others, God, and the world.
Parts One and Two of Read, Write, & Pray with Danté Stewart are available to the public at spiritualdirectionforwriters.com. Parts Three and Four are exclusive resources for those who registered for the Spiritual Direction for Writers Conversation Series with Danté Stewart and Nefertiti Robinson in September 2022.
Learn more about Read, Write, & Pray here.
Additional Read, Write, & Pray Resources:
Read, Write, & Pray with Danté Stewart: Part One
Read, Write, & Pray with The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Read, Write, & Pray with The Great Belonging by Charlotte Donlon
Read, Write, & Pray with Danté Stewart: Part Two
READ
“The Right’s Brittney Griner Obsession”
Here’s an excerpt:
This hostility is not a new phenomenon. Black athletes who bridge sports and social justice have always found themselves targeted by right-wing politicians and pundits for voicing dissatisfaction with the status quo. I am reminded of the Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s 2018 diatribe against LeBron James for publicly criticizing Trump. Ingraham said that James should keep politics out of sports and “shut up and dribble.”
Because Griner didn’t shut up and dribble, she faces the same backlash. Lahren, Veillon, and others can’t outright attack Griner for her race, so they instead cast her as unpatriotic.
To them, Griner is ungrateful and undeserving of freedom and compassion; she isn’t American enough to be saved. This is the politics of dehumanization. A headline in The American Conservative says it all: “Is Brittney Griner Worth It?”
Of course she’s worth it. Griner is a human being who deserves to be in the loving arms of her wife and to return to what she loves: to that sheer gracefulness that turns a court and a ball into a wonder in this world. But Griner does not have to be magical or spectacular to be treated with respect. She can criticize her country and belong back on American soil.
WRITE
Write about one of your earliest experiences dealing with race and/or racism? What connections exist between that specific experience and what Danté Stewart wrote about in “The Right’s Brittney Griner Obsession”? After responding to these questions, journal for at least 10 minutes about anything that comes to mind regarding Brittney Griner, Stewart’s article, or any recent observations about race and/or racism.
PRAY
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
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Danté Stewart is a writer and speaker whose voice has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, Comment Magazine, and more. He is the author of the debut memoir Shoutin’ in the Fire. As an up and coming voice, he writes and speaks into the areas of race, religion, and politics. He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University. He is currently studying at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Charlotte Donlon helps her readers and clients notice how they belong to themselves, others, God, and the world. Charlotte is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder of Spiritual Direction for Writers™ and Parenting with Art™. She is also the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University where she studied creative nonfiction with Paula Huston and Lauren F. Winner. She holds a certificate in spiritual direction from Selah Center for Spiritual Formation. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other. She is currently writing her next book, Spiritual Direction for Writers, which will be published by Eerdmans in 2024.