David Giffen

The beauty in black existence is as real as the brutality, and the beauty prevents the brutality from having the final word. Black suffering needs radical and creative voices, prophetic advocates who can tell brutal and beautiful stories of how oppressed black people survived with a measure of dignity when they were not meant to. James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

Don’t miss Redemptive Trauma: Confession of Defrocked Priest in both April editions of the New York Review of Books! In the words of Esquire, The New York Review of Books is the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language, and I couldn’t be happier that they have chosen to feature my memoir in their pages! Curious about the book? Redemptive Trauma is available in both paperback and e-book formats, and can be found on all major online retailers! Find out w...hat the critics are raving about, today! www.403LC.com/redemptivetrauma ... #nyrb #newyorkreview #traumarecovery #traumahealing #traumasurvivor #childhoodtrauma #substanceabuse #substanceabuseawareness #christianity #religion #memoir #booksthatheal #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #ptsd #addiction #bookstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #booksofinstagram #indiepublishing #indieauthor #indiereader #indiereaderapproved #davidgiffen #redemptivetrauma #confessionofadefrockedpriest

Gary Younge on Steve McQueen’s miniseries, Small Axe: The power of Small Axe is that it stands as proposer, seconder, and resounding voice vote for the inclusion of stories, events, and experiences too long absent from the record of British history. It presents Black Britons not as objects but as protagonists, not as heroes but as humans.

Encore appearance: NYRoB - http://eepurl.com/hvozPP

Confession is a sacramental practice of certain Christian denominations that seeks to lay before God the shortcomings of one’s life; naming the ways our choices have disconnected us from ourselves, our community, and from God. Defrocked is an ecclesial word to describe the deprivation of a member of a religious order from the sacred office they hold. A priest is a trusted member of the clergy; a member of the community who has been set apart and ordained by a bishop into life...long ministry. I have made confession to a priest since I was very young. Even when it had been years since I had been to worship on Sunday, I still made my way to the confessional regularly. I credit it with any sliver of claim I might have to humility. Defrocked is a state I now find myself in not a lay person, but no longer a priest. They don’t call it defrocked, mind you. They jazzed it up a little more and call it Deprivation of Ministry. A priest, I have been since the ripe old age of twenty-six, regardless of how absurd that may have seemed to so many who’d known me. This is my final confession, as a defrocked priest. Prologue, Redemptive Trauma: Confession of a Defrocked Priest ... #nyrb #newyorkreview #traumarecovery #traumahealing #traumasurvivor #childhoodtrauma #substanceabuse #substanceabuseawareness #christianity #religion #memoir #booksthatheal #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters #ptsd #addiction #bookstagram #author #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #booksofinstagram #indiepublishing #indieauthor #torontolife #gingersofinstagram #toronto #nadineburkeharris #nadiabolzweber @nybooks @indie_reader @nytimes

We play for keeps. #Play4Keeps

Maybe one of my coolest experiences ever tonight (and that’s saying something). I had the privilege of being the first ever public speaking teacher to a group of 45 kids (all children of immigrants to Canada). The things I would never have gotten to do if my life had not gone sideways. #Grateful

"Self direction is better!"

Many of us walk around with trauma symptoms we can’t explain. Whether sudden onset or chronic, we have anxieties, depressions or obsessive thoughts we’ve never gotten to the bottom of. We never think to connect our personal issue to what’s happened to our parents or grandparents. We’re now learning that traumas experienced by previous generations can be biologically inherited and I think that’s surprising for many people.

Thank you, Tellwell & realhousewifeofyorkregion! #bookstagram #askauthor #author #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #bookchat #booksofinstagram #booksigning #indiepublishing #indieauthor #trauma #traumarecovery #traumahealing #traumasurvivor #childhoodtrauma #substanceabuse #substanceabuseawareness #christianity #religion #memoir #booksthatheal #mentalhealthmentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthmatters