Synopses & Reviews
An activist influential in the civil rights movement, Rosemarie Freeney Hardingandrsquo;s spirituality blended many traditions, including southern African American mysticism, Anabaptist Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, and Afro-Brazilian Candomblandeacute;. Remnants, a multigenre memoir, demonstrates how Freeney Hardingand#39;s spiritual life and social justice activism were integral to the instincts of mothering, healing, and community-building. Following Freeney Hardingandrsquo;s death in 2004, her daughter Rachel finished this decade-long collaboration, using recorded interviews, memories of her mother, and her motherand#39;s journal entries, fiction, and previously published essays.
Review
andquot;I could not put this book down.and#160; It is a work of love and a testament to the power of love between a mother and her daughter and an abiding belief in the possibilities we have to help create a more loving, humane world.and#160; This is a book of astounding beauty and wisdom.and#160; This is a memoir that encourages us to live into our best self. It is a read more than worthy of your time and will linger in your head and heart.andquot;
Review
andquot;Remnants is an extraordinary gift. It is a kind of Rosetta Stone of the African American Womanand#39;s soulandmdash;all the and#39;remnants,and#39; the bits and pieces Rosemarie carefully saved, remembered, nurtured, in her ancestors, relatives, and self coming together in this extremely useful compendium of wisdom, of sureness and insight that we will be able to use for generations to come.andquot;
Review
andquot;A unique and provocative crossover text, Rosemarie Freeney Harding and Rachel Elizabeth Hardingand#39;s Remnants troubles the boundaries of authorship, of genre, of discipline, of voice and agency. It hovers at the boundaries of the sacred and secular, but knits them together in the daily lives of practitioners and communities for whom a division is untenable, unthinkable even. It impels us to think deeply about the meaning of politics and the kinds of hidden intimacies that make committed public engagement possible, without succumbing to the unhelpful public/private binary. We need the stories of the kinds that are recounted here.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Rosemarie Harding never achieved the iconic status of Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. Yet she made many significant contributions to the civil rights movement, especially in the work she did to connect spirituality to the larger project of social justice. . . . A wise and humane memoir.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] spirited compilation of ecumenical history, folk wisdom, fiction, memoir, and poetry. . . . The central message of Hardingandrsquo;s life is abiding love, passed down through generations, strengthened in the aftermath of grief, racial terrorism, and trauma. The book also tells the unusual story of Mennonite House, a pioneering center of interracial activism in Atlanta co-founded by Harding and her husband, and offers other insights that shape its powerful narrative.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Remnants is the spiritual memoir of Civil Rights Movement activist Rosemarie Freeney Harding. She was a religious woman whose spirituality blended several religious practices. Following her death in 2004, her daughter Rachel finished her memoir, recorded interviews, her motherand#39;s journal entries, poems, previously published essays, and a lifetime of conversations.
About the Author
Rosemarie Freeney Harding (1930andndash;2004) was an organizer, teacher, social worker, and cofounder of Mennonite House, an early integrated community center in Atlanta. She also cofounded the Veterans of Hope Project at the Iliff School of Theology.
Rachel Elizabeth Harding, daughter of Rosemarie Freeney Harding and Vincent Harding, is Assistant Professor of Indigenous Spiritual Traditions in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado, Denver, and author of A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblandeacute; and Alternative Spaces of Blackness.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Daughterand#39;s Prandeacute;cis / Rachel E. Hardingand#160; ix
1. (the light)and#160; 1
I. Groundand#160; 5
2. Ryeand#39;s Rites (poem)and#160; 7
3. Grandma Ryeand#160; 9
4. There Was a Tree in Starkville . . .and#160; 15
5. Daddyand#39;s Markand#160; 21
6. Joe Daniels: Getting Unrulyand#160; 24
7. The Side of the Roadand#160; 29
8. Papaand#39;s Girland#160; 32
II. Northand#160; 41
9. Snow and Spring in Woodlawnand#160; 43
10. Shirley Dardenand#160; 52
11. Brother Budand#39;s Deathand#160; 54
12. Death, Dreams, and Secrecy: Things We Carriedand#160; 57
13. Seasonand#160; 63
14. Elegant Cousins and Original Beautyand#160; 66
15. Warmthand#160; 71
16. Altgeld Gardensand#160; 75
17. Hot Rolls (short fiction)and#160; 82
18. Looking for Workand#160; 92
19. The Nursing Testand#160; 96
20.and#160; In Loco Parentis (short fiction)and#160; 97
21. Mama Freeney and the Haintsand#160; 107
22. Heightand#160; 113
III. Southand#160; 115
23. Hospitality, Haints, and Healing: African American Indigenous Religion and Activismand#160; 117
24. Mennonite House in Atlantaand#160; 127
25. The Next-Door Neighborand#160; 137
26. Traveling for the Movementand#160; 140
27. Koinonia Farm: Cultivating Convictionand#160; 144
28. A Radical Compassion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Clarence Jordan, and Marion King-Jacksonand#160; 155
29. A Song in the Time of Dying: A Memory of Bernice Johnson Reagonand#160; 163
30. The Blood House (a story outline)and#160; 165
31. Spirit and Struggle: The Mysticism of the Movementand#160; 168
IV. The Dharamsala Notebookand#160; 179
32. Sunrise after Delhi (poem)and#160; 181
33. The Dharamsala Notebook Iand#160; 182
34. The Dharamsala Notebook IIand#160; 194
V. Bunting 199
35. The Buntingand#160; 201
36. The Workshops and Retreats: Ritual, Remembering, and Medicineand#160; 217
VI. The Pachamama Circleand#160; 227
37. Pachamama Circle I: Racheland#39;s Dreamand#160; 229
38. Pachamama Circle II: Sue Bailey Thurman and the Harrietsand#160; 231
39. Pachamama Circle III: A Choreography of Motheringand#160; 237
40. Mama and the Godsand#160; 241
AfterWordsand#160; 243
41. Fugida: Poem for Oyandaacute;and#160; 245
42. Class Visits: Love, White Southerners, and Black Exceptionalismand#160; 247
43. A Little Windand#160; 265
44. (the Call)and#160; 268
Appendix: Rosemarieand#39;s Genealogiesand#160; 271
Acknowledgmentsand#160; 283
Indexand#160; 287