Episode 120 :: Jasmine L. Holmes :: Stories of Sharing Beauty, Resilience, and Fierce Faith from Black Women’s Experiences in History

Today I have the absolute pleasure of sharing with you my conversation with the one and the only Jasmine Holmes. Jasmine is an essayist, an educator and an excavator of jewels hidden in history. She shares her story of growing up in a predominately white environment and shares about the well-meaning people in her life who would say totally misguided and inappropriate things to her that she just felt like she had to accept as normal. As she began to learn about more about history and the Black experience within it, she began to realize how those patterns of behavior have been woven so deeply into the generations. When she became a wife and a Mother, she began to really unpack some of the layers of her community and experiences, which gave birth to her book Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope. In this beautiful book, she poured out her heart’s desire to raise young men who understand what they’ve inherited, to live honestly and authentically, but also to be led by hope. 

During her journey of unpacking some unsung ambassodors of the faith that she mentioned in Mother to Son, readers approached Jasmine about wanting to know more about these Black pillars of the faith they had not heard of before. That set Jasmine on a journey of discovering who else is out there. What emerged is her beautiful work Carved in Ebony: Lessons from the Black Women Who Shape Us. Jasmine calls this her love letter to the little girl that she was who had a quest for knowledge, but so often did not see people that looked like her. Y’all this book is SO good. The women in its pages are fascinating women of fierce faith, who fought for abolition, carried the Gospel with them where they went and more. I’m so inspired by them and by Jasmine. 

The beauty and importance of intentionally unearthing people in history who have long been hidden within its yellowed pages is to give others a chance to have their voice an opportunity to be heard and highlight that their story and their life matters, and her book Carved in Ebony is an opportunity to do just that. In it you will find inspiring, faith fueling, and humbling stories of women that speak of the power of God in their lives, and the book serves as such a poignant picture of how much stories matter. These women lived lives that were full of struggle and triumph and they are ministering to us anew. That’s what God does with the lives of people. They matter to Him. And you matter to Him, friend. You matter. Your story matters. 

Connecting with Jasmine

-Books

-Pre-Order the young reader’s edition of Carved in Ebony!

-Facebook

-Hear her on The Gospel Coalition’s Podcast “Let’s Talk”

-Instagram

-Podcast for “Carved in Ebony” 

-Website


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References:

-Dr. Jemar Tisby (and our conversation on episode 119!)

-Night- Elie Wiesel

-The made up science created to insight panic and sew racism and prejudice about indigineous people, Black people and Jewish people (additional really good article from Harvard about Scientific Racism)

-Jim Crow 

-Civil Rights Movement

-Reconstruction: a success or failure?

-Tuskegee Syphilis Study

From Mother to Son- Jasmine Holmes

-The Fire Next Time- James Baldwin

-St. Anthony Neighborhood- Philando Castille’s murder

-The death of Mike Brown 

-co-dependency and the drama triangle 

-Ida B. Wells

-Fannie Lou Hamer

-Mary McLeod Bethune

-Lucy Craft Laney (museum in Georgia)

-The Fortens in Philadelphia

-Harriet Tubman- Moses of the Underground Railroad, also a UNION SPY

-Sojourner Truth- feminist icon

-George Washington’s teeth were NOT wooden, see info from the Mount Vernon’s website

-Robert E. Lee “hated slavery,” but he actually had enslaved people on his plantation, ripped apart families, etc. 

-Harry Potter 

-Chris Jackson

-Leslie Odom Jr.

-”Smash”

-”Smash” reunion

-”Stand”- Leslie Odom Jr.

-Charlotte Forten (Grimke) 

-Sara G. Stanley

-Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

-Aaron Burr and Theodosia 

-Aaron Burr has an affair with an enslaved woman, and their kids were the cousins of Charlotte Forten’s mother 

-”Who lives who dies who tells your story”- “Hamilton” 

-Chris Jackson in “Hamilton” documentary about playing someone (Washington) who owned people 

-Washington murdered indigenous peoples and was a complicted slave holder

-hunted Ona Judge until he died 

-Nanny Helen Burroughs

-George Washington Carver 

-Candace Owens

-Malcom X, his autobiography, his quest for respectability and didn’t realize until later how we he was treated like a mascot

-The African American Jeremiad

-MLK Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech”

-American Puritan Preaching Tradition

-David Walker’s “Appeal”

-Maria Stewart

-Sarah Mapps Douglas

-Patrick Henry “give me liberty or give me death”

Scripture References:

2 Corinthians 5, Colossians 1:19-22-reconciliation with Jesus 

Romans 3:23-we all have sin and fall short of the glory of God

Genesis 1:27-made in the image of God 

-The book of Jeremiah // Bible Project Video 

-The book of Isaiah // Bible Project Video 

Isaiah 30:15, Matthew 3:8, Matthew 4:17, Luke 5:31-32,  Luke 24:46-48, -repentance is a true turning

Connecting with Emily and Simply Stories Podcast:
Instagram (Em life // Podcast Life)
Facebook
Twitter
Blog 

*Intro and Outro music is from audionautix.com