These Black Women leader s and founders of these key organizations Combahee River Collective, or AAWDO, or National Black Feminist Organization or Black Lives Matter, don't just recount how their groups came into existence. 25-40 pages each of reflections, oral histories. What I loved is the LENGTH of each chapter. The Demita Frazier and Alicia Garza interviews stuck with me most. The gift she gives her reader is to listen in her conversations, rather than assert a stamp or KYT brand in each chapter. This Princeton professor of African American studies is a brilliant thinker. Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor edited her long form interviews with key Black women organizers, women involved. HOW WE GET FREE is what I hungered for without knowing it.

Black feminism that is real, knows too much work to do to be caught up in those games. Black feminism that has no time for bullshit, that doesn't confuse naming elders to respect with name dropping, Black feminism not thirsty for approval now, or fixated on future posterity. Or worlds Black women entered or re-shaped to survive. A black feminism that walked amongst worlds in which Black women circulate. I want a Black feminism that's rooted in HISTORY. Maybe I'm a moody bitch, but I'm also tired of hot takes, sound bite, Twitter feminism -conceived in echo chambers, academic social rings, in her head and in isolation. Back to clear articulations of 'what do we believe' and 'why?' Sure, blame my displeasure with the ever-present market forces to brand 'feminism' and even 'black feminism' (a resistant concept from its inception).

How we get free keeanga yamahtta taylor