All the Colors We Will See
Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding Our Way
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: W Publishing Group (Thomas Nelson)
- Published: 2018
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Publisher's Description
“With this exquisitely composed [essay collection], Patrice Gopo sets herself apart as one of the most promising and talented writers of faith of our time. All the Colors We Will See is evocative, compelling, surprising, and brave. Gopo has a special talent for weaving her story into the narratives of Scripture and for guiding the reader through some of the difficult realities of race, immigration, and identity in America with wisdom and grace. It’s rare to encounter a book that manages to be this honest and this generous with its readers at the same time. Every page, every sentence, is a gift!” —Rachel Held Evans, author, Searching for Sunday and Inspired Patrice Gopo grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, the child of Jamaican immigrants who had little experience being black in America. From her white Sunday school classes as a child, to her early days of marriage in South Africa, to a new home in the American South with a husband from another land, Patrice’s life is a testament to the challenges and beauty of the world we each live in, a world in which cultures overlap every day. In All the Colors We Will See, Patrice seamlessly moves across borders of space and time to create vivid portraits of how the reality of being different affects her quest to belong. In this poetic and often courageous collection of essays, Patrice examines the complexities of identity in our turbulent yet hopeful time of intersecting heritages. As she digs beneath the layers of immigration questions and race relations, Patrice also turns her voice to themes such as marriage and divorce, the societal beauty standards we hold, and the intricacies of living out our faith. With an eloquence born of pain and longing, Patrice’s reflections guide us as we consider our own journeys toward belonging, challenging us to wonder if the very differences dividing us might bring us together after all. Praise for All the Colors We Will See “What I find so very moving about this book is that its calm voice and winsome demeanor allow it to speak hard truths. Ms. Gopo is a writer both thoughtful and bold, deliberate and graceful, compassionate and rock solid. This is a wise and ruminative book on color, marriage, the church, and what it takes to continue in Christ’s love despite the fallen and falling world around us.” — Bret Lott, author, Letters and Life and Jewel “As a white woman who grew up in South Africa, I’m so grateful to Patrice, a black woman who grew up in Alaska, for opening the pages of her life. My story is changed and challenged and enriched because of hers. And I am in her debt.” — Lisa-Jo Baker, bestselling author of Never Unfriended and Surprised by Motherhood “In the chasm between race and culture lies Patrice Gopo’s heartfelt collection of essays. All the Colors We Will See is an interrogation of blackness and belonging from a woman who is as much Alaskan as she is Jamaican, Asian as she is Southern, engineer as she is writer, faithful as she is doubting. As she searches “for something that is lost before we can even remember,” Gopo arrives at the intersection of God, race, and country to realize that the only robes that fit are her own.”— Desiree Cooper, Next Generation Indie Book Award winner and author, Know the Mother
Endorsements (13)
“What I find so very moving about this book is that its calm voice and winsome demeanor allow it to speak hard truths. Ms. Gopo is a writer both thoughtful and bold, deliberate and graceful, compassionate and rock solid. This is a wise and ruminative book on color, marriage, the church, and what it takes to continue in Christ’s love despite the fallen and falling world around us.”
“With insight, clarity, and sharp intelligence, Gopo explores identity, faith, injustice, and, most important, the power of love. The essays also meditate on the limitations and violence of language and how the stories we tell others are as important as the ones we tell ourselves. The world would be a better place with more of these true stories. This may be Gopo’s first book, but her essays show the wisdom of an experienced writer.”
“Patrice Gopo is a sharp-eyed, big-hearted storyteller. She seamlessly weaves the intimate world of her search for identity and family with larger questions about the dynamics of race, ethnicity, history, and culture. In these multifaceted essays, she opens a doorway into the hazy, shifting territory between the known and unknown. It’s a pleasure to walk through it with her.”
“In the chasm between race and culture lies Patrice Gopo’s heartfelt collection of essays. All the Colors We Will See is an interrogation of blackness and belonging from a woman who is as much Alaskan as she is Jamaican, Asian as she is Southern, engineer as she is writer, faithful as she is doubting. As she searches “for something that is lost before we can even remember,” Gopo arrives at the intersection of God, race, and country to realize that the only robes that fit are her own.”
“With this exquisitely composed essay collection, Patrice Gopo sets herself apart as one of the most promising and talented writers of faith of our time. All the Colors We Will See is evocative, compelling, surprising, and brave. Gopo has a special talent for weaving her story into the narratives of Scripture and for guiding the reader through some of the difficult realities of race, immigration, and identity in America with wisdom and grace. It’s rare to encounter a book that manages to be this honest and this generous with its readers at the same time. Every page, every sentence, is a gift!”
“All the Colors We Will See is a rare and wonderful book. It is thoughtful yet lyrical. It is serious yet pleasurable. It is challenging and encouraging. Patrice Gopo’s autobiographical essays trace the beautiful tensions inherent in a childhood stretched between Alaska and Jamaica and an adulthood stretched between the east coast of the United States and the African continent. It isn’t easy for a single life to embrace the globe, but the gifts of such a life are immeasurable. I am so glad that Patrice Gopo has shared these gifts with us, her grateful readers.”
“Patrice Gopo has written a striking memoir of her own personal journey through faith, hope, and love, illuminated by all the many nuances of color that have made her who she is. Born of Jamaican immigrants whose roots reach through Africa to India, she was raised in Alaska and married a Zimbabwean man. Gopo details her journey from Anchorage, Alaska, to Charlotte, North Carolina, in a way that makes us examine the many disparate colors that define us all. This is a memoir lit by honest revelation.”
“Flannery O’Conner said the writer is one who stares longer than usual in order to pay attention and help us see. Gopo’s attention to Scripture and her experience across many borders illuminates a spiritual reality that is sorely needed. Take and see.”
“Patrice Gopo’s debut collection of personal essays, All the Colors We Will See, is a vibrant, fascinating exploration of the complexities of race and ethnicity. Gopo’s strong but intimate voice and the gracefulness of her prose are disarming, but the truths she reveals are occasionally stark. All the Colors We Will See is an important contribution to our crucial ongoing national dialogue about race, identity, and immigration.”
“I read this book straight through in one sitting, over several cups of tea. And when I emerged, I found I had been holding my breath the whole time. Patrice lets us see inside the secret hidden places of her story. Intimate. Painful. Holy. “As a white woman who grew up in South Africa, I’m so grateful to Patrice, a black woman who grew up in Alaska, for opening the pages of her life. My story is changed and challenged and enriched because of hers. And I am in her debt.”
“What I find so very moving about this book is that its calm voice and winsome demeanor allow it to speak hard truths. Ms. Gopo is a writer both thoughtful and bold, deliberate and graceful, compassionate and rock solid. This is a wise and ruminative book on color, marriage, the church, and what it takes to continue in Christ’s love despite the fallen and falling world around us.”
“As a white woman who grew up in South Africa, I’m so grateful to Patrice, a black woman who grew up in Alaska, for opening the pages of her life. My story is changed and challenged and enriched because of hers. And I am in her debt.”
“In the chasm between race and culture lies Patrice Gopo’s heartfelt collection of essays. All the Colors We Will See is an interrogation of blackness and belonging from a woman who is as much Alaskan as she is Jamaican, Asian as she is Southern, engineer as she is writer, faithful as she is doubting. As she searches “for something that is lost before we can even remember,” Gopo arrives at the intersection of God, race, and country to realize that the only robes that fit are her own.”
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