Best of
Activism

1

To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton


Huey P. Newton
    Long an iconic figure for radicals, Huey Newton is now being discovered by those interested in the history of America's social movements. This new release of a classic collection of his writings and speeches traces the development of Newton's personal and political thinking, as well as the radical changes that took place in the formative years of the Black Panther Party.With a rare and persuasive honesty, To Die for the People records the Party's internal struggles, rivalries and contradictions, and the result is a fascinating look back at a young revolutionary group determined to find ways to deal with the injustice it saw in American society. And, as a new foreword by Elaine Brown makes eminently clear, Newton's prescience and foresight make these documents strikingly pertinent today.

Dark Testament and Other Poems


Pauli Murray
    

The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities (Zine)


Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
    

Electric Dirt: A Celebration of Queer Voices and Identities from Appalachia and the South


Queer Appalachia
    

I Rise


Marie Arnold
    As she tries to find answers, Ayo looks to the wisdom of her ancestors and her Harlem community for guidance. Ayo's mother founded the biggest civil rights movement to hit New York City in decades. It’s called ‘See Us’ and it tackles police brutality and racial profiling in Harlem. Ayo has spent her entire life being an activist and now, she wants out. She wants to get her first real kiss, have a boyfriend, and just be a normal teen. When her mom is put into a coma after a riot breaks out between protesters and police, protestors want Ayo to become the face of See Us and fight for justice for her mother who can no longer fight for herself. While she deals with her grief and anger, Ayo must also discover if she has the strength to take over where her mother left off. This impactful and unforgettable novel takes on the important issues of inequality, systemic racism, police violence, and social justice.

Rosa Parks: My First Rosa Parks


Gardner
    Rosa went on to become a civil rights activist. In 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her courageous decision had a huge impact on civil rights, eventually leading to the end of segregation on public transport. She never stopped working for equal rights. Babies and toddlers will love to snuggle as you read to them the engaging story of this fascinating icon, and will also enjoy exploring the stylish and quirky illustrations of this sturdy board book on their own.Little People, BIG DREAMS is a bestselling series of books and educational games that explore the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life as a child with a dream. This empowering series offers inspiring messages to children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardback versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. Boxed gift sets allow you to collect a selection of the books by theme. Paper dolls, learning cards, matching games and other fun learning tools provide even more ways to make the lives of these role models accessible to children.Inspire the next generation of outstanding people who will change the world with Little People, BIG DREAMS!

Growing At Risk Medicinal Herbs, Cultivation, Conservation And Ecology


Richo Cech
    These plants are becoming rare because their native habitat is shrinking and because they are challenging to grow. Growing "at-risk" medicinal plants depends on conserving or creating the environment that harbors them. It is my sincere hope that gardeners and conservationists will use this book to help preserve wild places and as solid ground for fostering and protecting our irreplaceable native medicinal plants.

Law Enforcement Violence Against Women of Color & Trans People of Color: A Critical Intersection of Gender Violence & State Violence


Incite! Women of Color Against Violence
    It includes fact sheets, ideas for organizing, and sample tools created by other organizations.

Spells for Change: A Guide for Modern Witches


Frankie Castanea
    From justice spells to protective charms, Frankie Castanea brings her fresh style to an ancient practice, showing that contemporary witchcraft is a powerful force for good and a tool for manifesting positive change.Modern-day witches are a blend of the old and the new. They travel to the grocery store, work nine-to-five jobs, and teach in our classrooms. They also carry black tourmaline and quartz, and wave bay and rosemary bundles over their doorways.Within an ancient and sacred practice, a new type of Craft has taken hold: one that combines the power of action with energy and intent, prioritizes self-realization, and matches its activism with manifestation.With chapters on meditation, grounding, cleansing, banishing, binding, and more, Spells for Change will help the modern witch create change within the hearth, the heart, and the world—one spell at a time.

Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor


Kim Kelly
    Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the working-class heroes who propelled American labor’s relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law. The names and faces of countless silenced, misrepresented, or forgotten leaders have been erased by time as a privileged few decide which stories get cut from the final copy: those of women, people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, sex workers, prisoners, and the poor. In this definitive and assiduously researched work of journalism, Teen Vogue columnists and independent labor reporter Kim Kelly excavates that untold history and shows how the rights the American worker has today—the forty-hour workweek, workplace-safety standards, restrictions on child labor, protection from harassment and discrimination on the job—were earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears. Fight Like Hell comes at a time of economic reckoning in America. From Amazon’s warehouses to Starbucks cafes, Appalachian coal mines to the sex workers of Portland’s Stripper Strike, interest in organized labor is at a fever pitch not seen since the early 1960s. Inspirational, intersectional, and full of crucial lessons from the past, Fight Like Hell shows what is possible when the working class demands the dignity it has always deserved.

Unfadeable


Maurice BroaddusMaurice Broaddus
    A wiser-than-her-years graffiti artist known for tagging walls and bridges in her Indianapolis neighborhood, the Land, Bella plans to spend her summer break lying low and steering clear of anyone who might tip off to social services that she’s living on her own.But keeping a low profile is all but impossible when Bella discovers people in high places are trying to defund the Land. She has to find a way to fight back. Getting involved will mean putting herself out there—making connections with unlikely friends and attracting potential enemies. But if Bella doesn’t put her trust in her neighbors and learn how to bring her community together, her home—and her future—will never be the same.From author Maurice Broaddus comes a heartfelt and genuine story about building community, finding family, and the power of Black Girl Magic.

The Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale: Restoring an Island Ecosystem


Nancy Castaldo
    On Isle Royale, a unique national park more than fifty miles from the Michigan shore and about fifteen miles from Minnesota, a thrilling drama is unfolding between wolves and moose, the island’s ultimate predator and prey. For over sixty years, in what has been known as the longest study of predator and prey in the world, scientists have studied the wolves and moose of Isle Royale and the island’s ecology to observe and investigate wildlife populations. But due to illness and underlying factors, the population of wolves on the island has dropped while the number of moose has increased, putting the Isle Royale ecosystem in jeopardy. Now, for the first time ever, scientists are intervening. Join celebrated author Nancy Castaldo in this exciting journey to Isle Royale to document the genetic rescue experiment scientists there are embarking on. If they can successfully relocate twenty to thirty wolves from the mainland to Isle Royale, scientists can potentially restore the balance among wolves, moose, and trees of the island's ecosystem. Now the living laboratory experiment begins.

Deaf Utopia: A Memoir - And a Love Letter to a Way of Life


Nyle DiMarcoNyle DiMarco
    At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents.In this moving and engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people. From growing up in a rough-and-tumble childhood in Queens with his big and loving Italian-American family to where he is now, Nyle has always been driven to explore beyond the boundaries given him.A college math major and athlete at Gallaudet—the famed university for the Deaf in Washington, DC—Nyle was drawn as a young man to acting, and dove headfirst into the reality show competitions America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars—ultimately winning both competitions.Deaf Utopia is more than a memoir, it is a cultural anthem—a proud and defiant song of Deaf culture and a love letter to American Sign Language, Nyle’s primary language. Through his stories and those of his Deaf brothers, parents, and grandparents, Nyle opens many windows into the Deaf experience.Deaf Utopia is intimate, suspenseful, hilarious, eye-opening, and smart—both a memoir and a celebration of what makes Deaf culture unique and beautiful.

Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements


Courtney Desiree Morris
    

To Change a Planet


Christina Soontornvat
    But when cars, factories, and cities let loose millions and billions and trillions, they can trap and stifle like a too-warm blanket. One notch higher on the thermometer may seem small and insignificant, but one notch higher can change our seas, our seasons, life, us. But when one person and one person and one person become many…THEY can change a planet—for the better.With calm, truthfulness, and beauty, To Change a Planet demonstrates the importance of caring for our planet, and how our individual and collective actions multiplied together can make the world better. Eye popping explosions of color on every page create a stunning visual narrative that invites readers to spot and follow the same characters through their daily lives and ultimately to the famous climate march on Washington. Clear, informative, and meticulously researched endnotes answer a myriad of questions in simple language, cite irrefutable sources, and provide hands-on solutions that even young children can be a part of.With our planet warming at an alarming pace, and the effects of climate change ravaging whole communities and countries—especially the most vulnerable populations—we need clearheaded, fact-based stories about the reality of climate change more than ever. This book will be especially appealing to parents, caregivers, STEM teachers, and librarians looking to help children understand the natural world and to foster responsibility and stewardship. It is also sure resonate with budding young climate activists.

H Is for Harlem


Dinah Johnson
    Harlem is full of remarkable treasures, including museums, performance spaces, community centers, and more—all of which come to life in this lavish celebration of Harlem as an epicenter of African American history and a vibrant neighborhood that continues to shape our world. At once a love letter and a rich alphabetical archive, H Is for Harlem highlights communities and traditions that connect our past and present.

Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church


Eric Costanzo
    Our witness has been compromised, our numbers are down, and our reputation has been sullied, due largely to our own faults and fears. The church's ethnocentrism, consumerism, and syncretism have blurred the lines between discipleship and partisanship. Pastor Eric Costanzo, missiologist Daniel Yang, and nonprofit leader Matthew Soerens find that for the church to return to health, we must decenter ourselves from our American idols and recenter on the undeniable, inalienable core reality of the global, transcultural kingdom of God. Our guides in this process are global Christians and the poor, who offer hope from the margins, and the ancient church, which survived through the ages amid temptations of power and corruption. Their witness points us to refocus on the kingdom of God, the image of God, the Word of God, and the mission of God. The path to the future takes us away from ourselves in unlikely directions. By learning from the global church and marginalized voices, we can return to our roots of being kingdom-focused, loving our neighbor, and giving of ourselves in missional service to the world.

Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa


Emma Barnes
    We became teenagers in the nineties when New Zealand felt a lot less cool about queerness and gender felt much more rigid. We knew instinctively that hiding was the safest strategy. But how to find your community if you’re hidden? Aotearoa is a land of extraordinary queer writers, many of whom have contributed to our rich literary history. But you wouldn’t know it. Decades of erasure and homophobia have rendered some of our most powerful writing invisible. Out Here will change that. This landmark book brings together and celebrates queer New Zealand writers from across the gender and LGBTQIA+ spectrum with a generous selection of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and much, much more. From established names to electrifying newcomers, the cacophony of voices brought together in Out Here sing out loud and proud, ensuring that future generations of queers are afforded the space to tell their stories and be themselves without fear of retribution or harm.

No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear


Toni Morrison
    

Colonization and Decolonization


Zig Zag
    It offers a broad understanding of colonialism, arguing that it is not something limited to a specific historical period, but rather something that has happened throughout history and the present. For those of us living in what is now known as the Americas, this is essential reading for understanding our present condition and the legacy of genocide and conquest.The book is presented as a series of lesson plans, making it easy to use for workshops, discussion groups, and even classes. Additionally, there are recommended resources for further reading, which make it an excellent starting point to further exploration.

Where the Light Enters: The Founding of the ‘Me Too’ Movement


Tarana Burke
    

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race / We Should All Be Feminists / Dear Ijeawele


Reni Eddo-Lodge
    Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.We Should All Be Feminists A personal and powerful essay from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the bestselling author of Americana and Half of a Yellow Sun.I would like to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: we must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response. Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions–compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive–for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.

Damn Every Thing But The Circus


Corita Kent