Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei

Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei is an author, activist, maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer, and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace (hailed as “an act of love” by Alice Walker and “a classic” by Jack Kornfield).

Coauthor of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love & Liberation, she urges all communities to have the conversations necessary to become more aware of what hinders liberation of self and society. The Radical Dharma events that have emerged from the book have initiated profound healing and deepened commitment to dismantling oppression across lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other divides.

Called "the most intriguing African-American Buddhist" by Library Journal, Rev. angel is the second of only four black women to be recognized as a Zen "sensei" or teacher in the Japanese Zen lineage. Responsible for coining the term for the field of Transformative Social Change, she is a visionary who applies wisdom teachings and embodied practice to intractable social issues at the intersections of race, climate, and economic justice. She envisions a presence-centered social justice movement as the foundation for personal freedom, a just society, and the healing of divisions of race, class, faith, and politic.

She is known for her unflinching willingness to sit with and speak uncomfortable truths with love. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Boston Globe, Ms., Essence, and Buddhadharma. In recognition of her work, she received the first Creating Enlightened Society Award from the international Shambhala Community.

Rev. angel notes, "Love and Justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters."