"Inspiring, thoughtful, and beautiful." --BRYAN STEVENSON
"A tender reminder and spacious invitation." -- FATHER GREGORY BOYLE
"Liz Walker accomplishes a difficult literary and theological balance with stunning clarity." --OTIS MOSS III
An extraordinary account of a Black church that decided to give neighbors a space to share their grief, No One Left Alone provides a blueprint premised on a simple truth: the wounded heal best together.
As the first Black woman to anchor the Boston-area evening news, Liz Walker found herself in an industry that defined the neighborhood of Roxbury largely by violence. But when she became a pastor there, Walker grew close to households marked not only by trauma but by courage--including the family of Cory Johnson, a young father who was murdered. In the wake of their worst nightmare, the family reached out for help.
As Walker's congregation invited neighbors to gather, they created soft spaces for others' grief to land. There, in the stories told, the meals shared, the tears shed, and the silences kept, people found a space to receive their sorrow. Out of this ministry grew a grassroots trauma-healing program, one now being replicated across the country.
Through this groundbreaking book, begin to imagine what story-sharing groups might look like in your context. Face the disparity of grief that comes from racism and systemic inequality, and learn to confront legacies of harm. Discover the healing power of listening, as well as the art and skills of accompanying someone in pain. Further, grasp how caregivers, pastors, counselors, and other healers--many with their own wounds--can benefit from soft spaces too.
Marked by history and surrounded by violence and loneliness, we all long for healing. In the tradition of esteemed writers like Bryan Stevenson and Cole Arthur Riley, Walker writes about how community helps us transfigure trauma. There is nothing dramatic about listening to someone's story or sharing our own. But there is mystery here, and sacredness. No one has to be left alone.
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.
|Father Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, as well as Cherished Belonging, Barking to the Choir, The Whole Language, and Forgive Everyone Everything. He has received the California Peace Prize and has been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2024, President Biden awarded Father Boyle with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Chapter 1 The Pain We Bear
Chapter 2 Beginning at the End
Chapter 3 The Measure of a Life
Chapter 4 The Inequity of Grief
Chapter 5 Wounded Healers
Chapter 6 Breaking the Silence
Chapter 7 Can We Talk. . .
Chapter 8 To Share a Meal
Chapter 9 Creating aSoft Space
Chapter 10 Truth Be Told
Chapter 11 Listening
Chapter 12 The Art of Healing
Chapter 13 Catching Our Breath
Chapter 14 Plenty of Hope
Acknowledgments
Notes
"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
