We were joined by Lama Rod Owens, Activist, Buddhist minister and bestselling author of Love & Rage and Nova Reid, Activist and author of The Good Ally they discussed their books and why love and anger are vital ingredients to activism and collective healing. The discussion will be chaired by poet, educator and psychologist, Dr Sanah Ahsan.

About the speakers: 

Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, best-selling author, activist, yoga instructor, and authorised Lama, or Buddhist teacher, in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered one of the leaders of his generation of Buddhist teachers. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School and received the Harvard Divinity School’s Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honors in 2021. Owens is the co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation and is a co-founder of Bhumisparsha, a Buddhist tantric practice and study community. Lama Rod has appeared on Good Morning America, the BBC, and Sirius XM Radio’s Urban View. He has also been featured in the Washington Post Magazine and published in Buddhadharma, Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, The Harvard Divinity Bulletin and many others. He has offered talks, retreats, and workshops in more than seven countries across the globe. His book, Love & Rage: The Path to Liberation Through Anger, was published in June 2020 and featured in The Los Angeles Times’ Top Ten Best Sellers list in 2021. Love & Rage is critically acclaimed for its prophetic truth, timing and honesty and wisdom, in dealing with the multiplicity of challenges this generation is waking up to.

Lama Rod Owens book Love and Rage is available to purchase here

Follow Lama Rod’s work on Instagram @lamarodofficial or www.lamarod.com

Nova Reid is an Activist, TED speaker, Social Impact Precious Award Winner and author. Often described as a force to be reckoned with, Nova uses her professional background in mental wellbeing to encourage meaningful change from the inside out. She has worked with a variety of organisations including Google, BT and Bloody Good Period and has an online academy: Becoming Anti-Racist with Nova Reid. Nova regularly appears on BBC News, Sky News and BBC Radio as a media expert. In 2018, Nova was invited to attend the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to provide expert media commentary. Nova is an accomplished presenter and public speaker and shared a stage with acclaimed actor David Harewood at The National Theatre in 2021 to talk about the impact of racism on mental health. She was headhunted by TEDx Frankfurt to deliver a talk on racial microaggressions which was upgraded as a TED talk in 2020. Nova was named one of the Top 100 Black British Women by the Black Magic Network, as part of International Women’s Day 2019 and in November 2020 she was awarded a Precious Award for Social Impact for her work in racial justice. Nova is a passionate advocate for equity, collective healing and helping people use self-agency to role model change.

Nova Reid’s book The Good Ally is available to purchase here 

Follow Nova’s work on Instagram @novareidofficial  or www.novareid.com

About the chair:

Dr Sanah Ahsan is an award-winning poet, a liberation and community psychologist, a presenter, speaker and educator. Her work is centred on compassion, troubling our colonial understandings of mental health and embracing each other’s madness. Her practice is shaped by liberation psychology, and draws on therapeutics, poetics, spirituality, and post-activism as interconnected practices to support racialised and marginalised people. Her published research is on the deconstruction of whiteness within UK clinical psychology. She is currently building anti-racism as a core competence for clinical psychology training in academic settings, whilst facilitating therapeutic spaces for QTBIPOC and young people in a range of community settings. Some of Sanah’s creative and media work ranges from presenting a Channel 4 documentary exploring the medicalisation of young people’s distress, to giving a TED Talk entitled ‘Rewriting my story with love and poetry as a queer muslim.’ The Guardian described Sanah’s poetry as “an exhilarating declaration of love and an invocation to bare the soul.” Sanah won the Outspoken Performance Prize for her poetry, and was recently shortlisted for the prestigious Bridport Poetry Prize. She is currently writing her debut poetry collection with support from Arts Council England.

Follow Sanah’s work on Instagram at @sanah_ahsan or www.sanahahsan.com