Angel Kyodo Williams

Angel Kyodo williams (born December 2 1969) is an ordained Zen priest [ [http://www.beliefnet.com/story/73/story_7381_1.html "Being Black" at Beliefnet.com] ] and the author of "Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace" (ISBN 0670892688), published by Viking Press in 2000. She is the spiritual director of the meditation-based New Dharma Community and founder of the Center for Urban Peace in Oakland, California [ [http://www.spiritrock.org/display.asp?pageid=220&catid=4&scatid=9 Angel Kyodo Williams at SpiritRock.org] ] and is credited with creating fearless meditation, fearless Yoga and Warrior Spirit Training.

Williams was raised by her firefighter father in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan after her parents were divorced. In 1996, she and Rebecca Walker opened Kokobar, the first cybercafe owned and operated by African American women, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with financial backing from, among others, Spike Lee and Tracy Chapman [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04EED6163DF932A35753C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 "Coping; A Zen Priest and the Art of Black Serenity" by Felicia R. Lee, "New York Times", October 1, 2000] ] .

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