While the stay-at-home order initially agitated my internal alarm system, I eventually appreciated
the clarity from social isolation. I gained certain hobbies such as bass guitar and biking, lit more incense and did sound meditation. Heck, I even restarted therapy. Being locked into a 19-credit course load and deciding where I was going to spend the next 5 years where I was going had previously preoccupied
my schedule.
Finally confined to the walls of my house, I caught a sudden spark of buying books. This literature fixation placed me in a spot where I felt imaginative, joyful, and revolutionary in the future. Here is the list of books that made my quarantine so visionary.
1. Hood Feminism. By Mikki Kendall
#BooksAsOutfits Challenge: @karnythia edition. Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall. 👸🏾📚⚖️ Hood Feminism is the first book where I read it and immediately felt heard. It gives insight into all of the areas of Black womanhood that require deeply feminist practices- many neglected by a whitewashed movement which is why the modern American feminist movement only seeks to rectify white women’s issues. Seeing all of the ways in which I my life has been a feminist battle or areas of feminism that have applied to my life amazes me. It really was comforting because it made me conceptualize that my issues are black women's issues and therefore it is a woman’s issue and I am not alone.
2. A Fire Like You, Nectar, and Soft Magic. By Upile Chisala.
I decided to do the #BooksAsOutfits challenge with @somedayflying !!! For those of you who didn’t know, I love poetry!♥️ I’m a big fan of @nayyirah.waheed and @morganapple0 . For my first outfit, I decided to do the collection of @beingupile
3. Magical Negro. By Morgan Parker.
Magical Negro covers a spectrum of emotions arising from the experiences of Black womanhood. I first got this book two years ago at a bookshop in Philadelphia and fell in love with variety of the forms for each poem. The content is just as relevant now as it was relevant then. It doesn’t ask for answers, only presents questions about the society in which we operate...miraculously.
4. Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner. By Jasmine Lee Jones.
This explores colorism, homophobia, and sexism in a world between two confrontational best friends. While oppression is portrayed as problems in the midst of strangers, our most valued relationships are packaged with oppression.
Honorable Mention
The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell. By W. Kamau Bell.
Yesterday I got to ask author and comedian @wkamaubell how does he recommend Black students deal with the silence of peers and professors at a time like this? He recommended not to spend all my time trying to educate and turn people into ally’s. This hit home because a lot of the interest in allyship is overwhelming and often misguided. In order to accept someone as an ally, I’d need to first acknowledge all of lapses that made me not call them one in the first place. He then went on to say don’t worry about them and focus on engaging with likeminded people. I just want peace for Black bodies. Bell then went on to say “The most important thing to learn in college is how to spend time talking to a bunch of different people and to stand up for yourself.”
Noted.
PS. Shout out to bae for encouraging me to go back to therapy.