a Liberatory Love letter from Rev. Reimoku G. Smith
Dear Beloved Cohort, Sacred Ancestors, Freedom Land, and Our Liberatory Becoming,
Thank you for holding me through this season of trembling, transformation, and truth-telling. Thank you for bearing witness to the sacred labor of reclaiming what colonization, patriarchy, and performance tried to sever in me. Thank you for being a refuge and a mirror, for calling forth the possibility of another way, a slower, soul-rooted Way, where love becomes the ground of being that we return to over and again.
I am celebrating the blossoming of ancestral remembrances and the opportunity to unlock all of the gifts and magic held within this Afro-amazing body-temple. I am celebrating the quiet, persistent audacity of daily devotions, the incense lit for the ascended ones before me while listening to their voices rattle my bones through undeniable signs and synchronicities. I am celebrating the solitary walks in the park, the ways I have surrendered to the Earth and let her teach me how to rest in awe of the Great Mystery. I am celebrating the heart-opening, cycle-breaking bravery of the brothas in the 7th Ward who now speak of grief and healing and dreams. I am celebrating the unfolding of my own calling一clearer, more invigorating and soul-stirring than ever before.
I’ve lovingly witnessed how mire can alchemize into medicine when met with care, ceremony, and collective witnessing. I’ve seen old patterns give way to sacred solutions. I’ve intentionally cultivated and practiced returning to the body, especially when it feels like a battlefield. I’ve practiced pausing before pushing. I’ve practiced letting my nervous system speak before my deliverables do. I’ve practiced listening for the subtle and honoring the slow. I’ve practiced allowing ancestral presence to inform organizational leadership. I’ve practiced dreaming and designing from liberatory roots where strategy, spirit, and the soma can coalesce.
I’ve shed the desire to perform leadership in ways that betray my being. I’ve released the pressure to prove my worth through productivity. I’ve let go of burnout as a badge of care. I’ve let go of inherited masculine archetypes that valorize viciousness over vulnerability. I’ve laid to rest limiting beliefs about what makes me safe, successful, or seen.
I can only call myself a guide because I’ve humbled myself before guidance—that of the land, my lineage, and the lore of our forebearers. I’ve grown because this cohort gave me permission to wade through murky waters and still call it sacred. I’ve grown because I choose to show up courageously tender and not just competent. I’ve grown because I remember that Black liberation must include Black ease, Black joy, and Black connection.
What feels more possible now is organizations that honor the sacred. A life where visionary strategy and healing ritual walk hand-in-hand. What feels more possible now is mentorship that is both masculine and mothering. What feels more possible is a community of kindreds practicing presence without shame. What feels more possible is a world where our freedom dreams are not theoretical, but tactile—planted in gardens, served on plates, spoken in affirmations, and embodied in the way we move and breathe.
Freedom rings because I remember that healing is both a communal and ancestral act. Freedom rings because life vibrates in accordance with the rhythms of the sacred. Freedom rings because I trust that I am enough in my being, not just in my doing. Freedom rings because my heart breaks open through grief and is mended by grace.
With Liberatory Love,
Rev. Reimoku G. Smith
Zen Buddhist Priest
Guide, FREEDOM LAND’S Mindfulness & Healing Justice Cohort
Rev. Reimoku Gregory Smith
he/ him/ his |
Zen Buddhist Priest
K.I.N.G.S.’ Culture - Ministry of the Divine Masculine (KC)
email: reimokubodhi@gmail.com
Rev. Reimoku Gregory Smith, affectionately known as Brother Reimoku, is a novice Soto Zen Buddhist priest and visionary servant leader whose ministry bridges contemplative practice, Shadow Work®, and healing justice. Formed in the rigorous tradition of Zen Buddhism, Brother Reimoku’s ordination represents not only a deep commitment to inner liberation but also a vow to serve the collective healing of all beings through wise and compassionate action.
A devoted advocate for the sacredness of all life, Brother Reimoku serves individuals and communities at the spiritual, emotional, and somatic levels. He walks alongside those impacted by systemic injustice—including those on death row—as a guide and spiritual counselor, offering witness, dignity, and practices that support liberation even under conditions of extreme confinement.
Brother Reimoku is also a self-mastery and embodied leadership coach, specializing in emotional intelligence, conscious communication, and Shadow Work® (in which he is currently training toward licensure). He is a proud initiate of the Mankind Project, through which he crossed a threshold into mature manhood and intentional brotherhood in February 2015. Out of that rite of passage, he founded K.I.N.G.S.’ Culture – Ministry of the Divine Masculine, a sacred brotherhood, liberationist movement, and self-mastery school that equips Black boys and men with the tools, mentorship, and rites of passage they need to grow into emotionally intelligent, economically empowered, and spiritually grounded leaders who create strong families and communities.
Whether in meditation halls, prison cells, or sacred healing circles, Brother Reimoku shows up as a bridge between traditions—honoring his Zen Buddhist lineage, Afro-indigenous wisdom traditions, and the Way of the Divine Masculine, all of which inform his approach to advocating for systemic transformation. His work calls faith leaders to reclaim their prophetic role in resisting violence in all its forms, including state-sanctioned execution.
