For the first reads of the Decolonize This Book Club’s second year, we chose Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall and a collection of poetry by Britteny Black Rose Kapri called Black Queer Hoe.
Read More
Deaf Culture, in a sense, is its own character in Feathers.
Read More
What I want to say here is that for all of my White family and friends who don't think they would need to do something like this because they aren't racist, or because they "get it", you do need to do this. You (just like me) need to take antiracism and make it personal-- to question and challenge the version of yourself in your mind because I can guarantee there is someone else underneath. It doesn't make you a bad person or less deserving of love. But we have to reckon with the other self we hold inside or else we can't be fully invested in antiracism work-- or else we can't do much good.
Read More
There are many things I could talk about with this masterful novel. Rap, hip-hop, police brutality, racism, rebellion, young love, friendship, poverty, expectations, assumptions. But honestly who am I to speak to any of those things? What I will say is this: Any book that makes fun of White people this much is desperately needed.
Read More
Many young writers, like myself, don’t know the first thing about getting published.
Why?
Because, either our writing programs didn’t teach us and/or because even successful writers don’t often talk about the process. And when publishing is talked about, it is often through a privileged lens— a lens that doesn’t help the majority of new writers reach their goals. So how do we help each other get published when we aren’t privileged? We learn by example.
I chose these writers to be our examples not simply based on their popularity and their relevance alone. It’s also more than that. I wanted to highlight not just how White men can get published, but how everyone else can get published too, including Black writers, Asian writers, women, non-Western writers/writers who tell non-Western stories, and LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) writers. This is important. White people, especially White men, have owned the publishing stage for centuries. But what about the rest of us?
This post is for the rest of us.
Read More