NEWS

Liberate, a Buddhist Meditation App for People of Color, Flourishes

By Justin Whitaker | | Buddhistdoor Global

Liberate, an app designed specifically to support the meditation practices of people from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (POC) communities, has gained a fast-growing following. Launched in May this year, the app is available from Apple’s App Store and Google Play and can be downloaded free of charge. The app was created by software engineer Julio Rivera after an empowering meditation experience with a POC sangha at the New York Insight Meditation Center led by Sebene Selassie and Dalila Bothwell—both featured on the app. When he could no longer meet with the sangha in person, Rivera sought out an app that could replicate it and found none. So he designed his own. Liberate features Buddhist teachers from a range of traditions, including Bonnie Duran, a professor of social work and public health at the University of Washington in Seattle and a core teacher in the Insight Meditation Society teacher training program; Joshua Bee Alafia, a cinematographer and teacher in the Theravada tradition; Lama Rod Owens, a teacher trained in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism; and Kaira Jewel Lingo, a former Zen Buddhist nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s sangha. Users can listen to meditations and guided talks, most ranging from 5–20 minutes, on topics specifically aimed at the needs of BIPOC meditators, as well as meditations specifically aimed at queerness and transgender experiences. Some of the content offers a deeper dive into important topics. Jan Willis, visiting professor of religion at Agnes Scott College in Georgia, offers a 46-minute talk on racism through a Buddhist lens, which is followed by a 42-minute Q&A.