Mindful and inclusive resources for graduate students in Liberal Studies
The semester has officially ended. What a great ride! For the first time in my life I feel rejuvenated and very much connected with the curriculum I’m pursuing at Lehman College. The first semester was mostly online, so I never really got the chance to explore the campus and its resources from the very beginning. However, once the second semester started I was already knocking on doors in search of opportunities, activities, and a fresh new network to explore.
I was nominated Outreach Coordinator by the Student Government Association, while keeping up my work with La Voce di New York. The courses I’ve taken this first year were both mandatory introduction classes to liberal studies and two electives. I chose to jump into these two classes because my specialization is Africana and African American Studies. I wanted to give myself time to learn more about South and Central America through courses that enhanced feminism, journalism, and activism in Latinx communities.
Down here you can find a guide of books that implemented this first part of my journey in grad school. Except for Butler’s book, all these readings have been sought by me or suggested by mentors, professors, and friends. Hope this can spark a constructive interest, especially if you are an activist in academia or a creative who wants to access more activism literacy.
“Emergent strategy” by adrienne maree brown
Fun fact: my future dog’s name will be Huey, in remembrance of The Boondocks’ character Huey Freeman, named after California‑born‑and‑raised activist Huey P. Newton. He’s not my idol, but he’s not even a minor person in North-American History. For a very long time, I didn’t have a real role model in activism, because I like absorbing various approaches, schools of thought, and social applications. I finally found one type of activism I can see myself operating in, within my pace, means, and channels. There are so many subcategories I fall under the label “activist”. I believe in intersectionality, social equity, and sustainability. The latter has been always a bit complicated to articulate and effectively apply to my activism. In what ways can I be sustainable through my actions, words, and love languages? Is there a way I can become the best and most efficient version of my activist self while cultivating my passions, sharing my strengths, and serving the community right away? I found the pathway to my answers in this book. Emergent strategy is the methodology with which people “intentionally change in ways that grow (their) capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds (they) long for”.
“Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall
Technically, I didn’t read this book: it was my first audiobook. In this phase of my life, I’m commuting and spending so much time on public transportation or cafés. If there’s something I despise is wasting my time or making other people waste their time. So I invest any minute of my day doing something productive. I also do this because I genuinely reserve some off‑phone/books/laptop time to myself, especially at night and super early mornings. Kendall’s book is an open letter to her readers, through which she shares the layers and contexts where mainstream feminism fails to succeed. The concept of “hood feminism” lays intersectionality, diversity, equity, and empowerment.
“Queer Love in color” by Jamal Jordan
This book gathers a touching and emotional collections of photographs taken and commented by NY Times journalist Jamal Jordan. His research in finding the best representation of Black queer couples in love all over the world was born from his own necessity to answer questions about love, affection, and relationships in the LGBTQ+ community.
“The eye of the beholder” by Barbata and Wingate
“Women pertain to a gender that is most of the time judged by its traits, nature, and physicality. In any part of the world, women face discrimination of all kinds, especially if they are part of a minority. In the United States of America, African‑descendant individuals have endured a spectrum of injustices that have impacted their mental health, their personal lifestyle, and ultimately their perception of selves. Black women, whether they’re based in the USA or not, suffer the most, due to systemic racism and political‑sociological dynamics.” (Baldini, 2022).
How pretentious to quote my own words! Even if my latest research has been focusing on the figure of Josephine Baker, these aforementioned words affirm a reality that has been extremely common among Black, Brown, and Indigenous women for long centuries. Julia Pastrana’s story from Mexico to the Nordic lands of Europe is the testimony of a long series of injustices perpetuated on the female body. This book is a collection of essays edited by Laura Anderson Barbata and Donna Wingate.
“Mulher, roupa, trabalho” by Mayra Cotta and Thais Farage
An exploration inside the fashion industry and how we find the figure of a woman within the workspace. This book was personally a great tool for me to keep up with my Portuguese skills. Nevertheless, beyond my own personal experience, this book written by Cotta and Farage is able to provide readers with an inclusive and representative view of the role that women have been and are still holding within society, specifically at their jobs places while expressing themselves through fashion choices, trends, and, cultural tastes, and survival necessities.
“Me and White supremacy” by Layla F. Saad
A book primarily for White, non‑Black, and biracial individuals. Yes, even if you’re a mixed black person you should feel the urgency to read these pages, which Saad has brilliantly put together as a guide book. Saad’s work focuses on the process of debunking the realities of white supremacy, as a civic organism made of xenophobic, racist, and patriarchal behaviors. This is a book that can be read as a book club or by your single self. Spoiler: uncomfortable questions might pop under your eyes and it is ok to take time to ponder on those words.
“Africana” by Chiara Piaggio and Igiaba Scego
This anthology of contemporary African tales is a well‑curated collection of authors from all parts of Africa. The book is in Italian and the reason why I was so much intrigued by reading these stories was because there’s a lack of Black voices in the Italian publishing industry, as well as in other kinds of fields. If you’re a polyglot or an expat (whether you’re working or studying in another country other than your motherland), I’d suggest you to keep up with your native tongue by reading online articles and consuming literary products. It doesn’t need to happen all the time nor with the same intensity as a grad student. Apply the most comfortable level of intensity with a realistic goal. Choose titles that can not only relax you in your free time, but that can also teach you something different you’ve never heard of or you barely know of. Implementation of knowledge through leisure time is always the best avenue to expand your horizons.
“Freedoms given, freedoms won” by Kim D. Butler
An academic book, but surely a reading that many people could benefit from. African Americans can learn how African Brazilian culture has shaped the African Diaspora over the Atlantic. Other people can learn about Brazilian culture, its melting pot of heritages, and spiritual practices that eventually made the country the major Mecca for African descendants. The cities that Butler writes about are São Paulo and Salvador de Bahia. The book is in English. Category: history. No, I won’t be offended if you skip this book (or even this guide). Yes, I don’t usually like history books either, but this one was a pleasure to read.
