“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
“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
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.
