Activists rejoice- your bookshelves will soon be groaning with titles designed to help you through your social justice journey.
Whether your passion lies in feminism, climate change, or the struggles of marginalised people, there are a host of books released in 2019 to suit your needs. Prominent figures in the social justice movement offer their insight and expertise to help guide the reader through many complex and important issues affecting the people today.
In a world that can seem steeped in division and confusion it can help to have passionate, honest, and intelligent voices to listen to, and these following 5 books can offer just that.
1. Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing The World From The Tweets To The Streets
Social worker and activist, Feminista Jones, uses humour and intelligence in her book detailing how black feminism has shaped and changed activism online. Innovative uses of social media platforms created by black women have been adopted by other branches of the social justice tree. Feminista Jones shows us how hashtag movements, thread stories, and increased dialogue between communities all have roots in black feminism. Reclaiming space and claiming power over their own voices, black feminists are playing a huge part in the social justice movement. The book is astute and uncompromising, and an inspirational read for anyone involved in online dialogues surrounding intersectionality and feminist activism.
2. Biased: The New Science of Race and Inequality
Pioneering social psychologist Professor Jennifer Eberhardt uses her platform to explain unconscious racial bias that exists in all of us, from the smallest micro-aggressions to more sinister bias that exists in larger society.
Described as ‘groundbreaking’ and ‘essential reading’, Prof. Eberhardt’s work can help us confront some of the more uncomfortable truths about our own bias, and how we can try to overcome it.
Biased is the perfect title to help us confront part of the human condition we may not even be fully aware of.
Released on April 4th 2019: preorder your copy now.
3. Pleasure Activism
Pleasure Activism is described by the activist and author Adrienne Maree Brown as “a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work”.
Climate change, gender issues, and racism are all topics often felt too complex and divisive to be properly addressed but Brown draws on other experts to explore a more positive approach to social activism. Through conversations and essays, the book offers a challenge to the reader to change their perspective on sex, race, drugs, and gender.
Pre-order your copy now, released April 18th 2019.
4. Memes To Movements: How The World’s Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest And Power
An Xiao Mina is a technologist and artist who has examined how meme culture has grown from being ‘silly’ to playing an important part of all sorts of movements around the world.
Exploring how memes have developed into ‘social media street art’, Mina shows how they are being used to stimulate discourse and direct attention to social issues. Memes can be used as tools of rebellion in places where dissent is strictly and violently prohibited, while elsewhere they are being used by tech-savvy governments to push propaganda.
An Xiao Mina takes a deeper look at how the increasing use of ‘social media street art’ has shaped and influenced our lives online.
5. The Book of Pride: How LGBTQ Heroes Changed The World
Mason Funk is a writer, and the founder of the Outwards Archive- an award-winning nonprofit that documents the history of LGBTQ people all over the United States.
Using his knowledge and insight, Funk brings us the true story of the gay rights movement from the 1960s to the today using interviews with leaders and ordinary people who witnessed the movement and drove it forward.
Often under the threat of violence, brave individuals took on political battles on top of their own personal struggles to help create change, and shape a better world for LGBTQ people. The Book of Pride is an essential look at an important time in American history, and the folk who fought for their community in the face of adversity and violence.
Pre-order yours now for release on May 30th 2019.
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