Deesha Philyaw - The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

In this episode of Black Art is Lit, we're diving into the opening chapter of Deesha Philyaw's award-winning collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies.

This book resonated with women because it tells the truth about the collision between desire and respectability in church spaces. It's specific, the church mothers, the unspoken rules, the particular texture of shame and grace that shapes Black women's lives. Philyaw gives us permission to see these women as fully human: messy, sexual, faithful, complicated, and real.

This isn't a story that eases you in. It names what we've always felt but never heard said out loud. The secrets. The double lives. The desires that don't fit the narrative we were given about who we're supposed to be.

What does it mean when two women who identify as straight are having sex with each other? When labels matter more than actions? When the rules shaping how you see yourself aren't even your own?

Did the honesty feel freeing or unsettling? Let's talk about it.