Description: An extraordinary account of a Black church that gives its neighbors a space to share grief and find community, No One Left Alone offers a simple truth: the wounded heal best together. In the tradition of writers like Bryan Stevenson, Liz Walker joins healing to justice, showing how community helps us transfigure the traumas that encircle us.
Brief description:
Liz Walker is a minister, journalist, activist, and sought-after speaker. She leads the Cory Johnson Program for Post-Traumatic Healing. As Boston's first Black evening television news anchor, Walker received two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in her field. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Walker served as pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church. She helped found the Jane Doe Safety Fund, has done humanitarian work in South Sudan, and has served on the boards of Boston Medical Center and Andover Newton Theological Seminary. The mother of three and grandmother of two, Walker now lives in Sarasota, Florida.
Review Quotes:
"No One Left Alone is an inspiring, thoughtful, and beautiful account of how 'making a way out of no way' among those too often wounded by injustice can create precisely the kind of hope and healing we need right now." --Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy
"Walker provides a cure for our 'era of mass grief' in a very readable, empathetic narrative." --Booklist
"No One Left Alone analyzes communal grief due to racism in Black American communities, resulting in vivid insights...A compelling community leader's memoir that promotes healing through attentiveness to those experiencing trauma." --Foreword Reviews
"My good friend Rev. Liz Walker has written a beautiful book about the power of kindness, availability, and love when they are turned loose in a loving community where the only agenda is love and acceptance. She invites us all into the deep end of community from the shallow end of despair and hopelessness. I could not commend this book more enthusiastically." --Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author of Love Does; Everybody, Always; Dream Big; and Undistracted
"It is not often that an author is able to capture the beauty and complexity of spiritual resilience betrothed to the bruising weight of trauma and grief. Minister and storyteller Liz Walker accomplishes this difficult literary and theological balance with stunning clarity." --Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ and author of Dancing in the Darkness
"In this book Walker graciously shares the wisdom that comes from her practice of compassionate leadership. I could sing Liz's praises all night and all day! She has turned subjects that are intended to break our hearts into a story of inspiration." --Becca Stevens, Episcopal priest, author, social entrepreneur, and founder of Thistle Farms
"Walker takes the unsolved murder of a young Black man in Boston as an example of a structural issue: the indifference of the criminal justice system to people of color. What's different about Walker's journey is what is missing in so much of the reporting: a healing program." --Charlayne Hunter Gault, civil rights activist and journalist
"In so many ways America needs healing. Liz Walker and the Cory Johnson Program bring that work to where it matters most--where it touches people. Recognizing the impact of violence, let alone chronic neglect and despair, on members of the community is critical to healing the country and the larger world." --Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts
"No One Left Alone is a local story that resonates across neighborhoods struggling to come to terms with violence and its long-lasting effects. Walker offers a compelling and theologically powerful testimony to how God's abiding presence can become visible in hard places. Blending stories with current research, No One Left Alone is Walker's call-and-response to confronting collective trauma." --Shelly Rambo, theology professor and author of Spirit and Trauma
"No One Left Alone is brilliant, profound, moving, and inspirational: a masterpiece that wrestles honestly with the trauma, violence, racism, and isolation of our struggling world. It emerges from the crucible of pain and grief in Boston's Roxbury community and the long cascade of violence that culminated in the murder of Cory Johnson. His grieving family, a wounded community, and a loving pastor have painstakingly created a soft space where all are accepted, stories shared, and healing made possible." --Dr. Jim O'Connell, founder and director of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, featured in Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder