Autobiography as Activism

Autobiography as Activism

Author: Margo V. Perkins

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2009-10-05

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1628467428

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Angela Davis, Assata Shakur (a.k.a. JoAnne Chesimard), and Elaine Brown are the only women activists of the Black Power movement who have published book-length autobiographies. In bearing witness to that era, these militant newsmakers wrote in part to educate and to mobilize their anticipated readers. In this way, Davis's Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974), Shakur's Assata (1987), and Brown's A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story (1992) can all be read as extensions of the writers' political activism during the 1960s. Margo V. Perkins's critical analysis of their books is less a history of the movement (or of women's involvement in it) than an exploration of the politics of storytelling for activists who choose to write their lives. Perkins examines how activists use autobiography to connect their lives to those of other activists across historical periods, to emphasize the link between the personal and the political, and to construct an alternative history that challenges dominant or conventional ways of knowing. The histories constructed by these three women call attention to the experiences of women in revolutionary struggle, particularly to the ways their experiences have differed from men's. The women's stories are told from different perspectives and provide different insights into a movement that has been much studied from the masculine perspective. At times they fill in, complement, challenge, or converse with the stories told by their male counterparts, and in doing so, hint at how the present and future can be made less catastrophic because of women's involvement. The multiple complexities of the Black Power movement become evident in reading these women's narratives against each other as well as against the sometimes strikingly different accounts of their male counterparts. As Davis, Shakur, and Brown recount events in their lives, they dispute mainstream assumptions about race, class, and gender and reveal how the Black Power struggle profoundly shaped their respective identities.


Performing Autobiography

Performing Autobiography

Author: Katrina M. Powell

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-06-14

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 3030645983

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Performing Auto/biography: Narrating a Life as Activism analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed in five authors’ auto/biographical texts, examining their representations of identities and the public implications of writing individual identity. Exploring the ways race, class, culture, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality might affect the form(s) in which writers choose to write (e.g., memoir, fictional autobiography, poetry), questions how autobiographers challenge notions of genre, truth, and representation. This builds on the argument that constructing identity is a Performing Autobiography performance, one that can simultaneously use and subvert traditional notions of rhetoric and genre. By examining the auto/biographical texts of Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison, Joyce Johnson, and Shirley Geok-lin Lim together, the book theorizes self-representation and genres as rhetorical performances, and therefore their texts can be seen as “performative auto/biography”—transgressive archives where readers are asked to consider their own identities and act accordingly. In doing so, this book contributes to growing theories in feminist rhetorics and auto/biography studies, arguing that these performative genres advocate for life narratives as political and social activism.


Autobiography of Protest in Hawaii

Autobiography of Protest in Hawaii

Author: Robert H. Mast

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 9780824817848

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Autobiography of Protest in Hawai‘i explores the state's social and economic fabric through the comments of 35 progressive activists. The activists, ranging in age from the mid-30s to the late 70s, comment on their involvement on issues such as housing, labor, land use, poverty, environment, sexual harassment, seniors, and sovereignty. Almost one-half are women and there is an even split between those born in Hawai‘i and those born elsewhere. The book begins with an overview of political activism in Hawai‘i, and then records the oral history of the individual activists. Each was asked to respond to factors that shaped their moral and political lives. They were invited to explore the forces and events in their past that led them to take on an activist role. The activists were also asked to provide personal assessments of insights gained from their experiences and how they can be applied today, their analysis of Hawai‘i at that time, and some speculation on Hawai‘i's future. The result is a book that produces some very interesting and controversial viewpoints on Hawai‘i's political socialization and history.


Angela Davis

Angela Davis

Author: Angela Y. Davis

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2022-01-18

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 1642596655

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“An activist. An author. A scholar. An abolitionist. A legend.” —Ibram X. Kendi This beautiful new edition of Angela Davis’s classic Autobiography features an expansive new introduction by the author. “I am excited to be publishing this new edition of my autobiography with Haymarket Books at a time when so many are making collective demands for radical change and are seeking a deeper understanding of the social movements of the past.” —Angela Y. Davis Angela Davis has been a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements for more than 50 years. First published and edited by Toni Morrison in 1974, An Autobiography is a powerful and commanding account of her early years in struggle. Davis describes her journey from a childhood on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the most significant political trials of the century: from her political activity in a New York high school to her work with the U.S. Communist Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Soledad Brothers; and from the faculty of the Philosophy Department at UCLA to the FBI's list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Told with warmth, brilliance, humor and conviction, Angela Davis’s autobiography is a classic account of a life in struggle with echoes in our own time.


Pauli Murray

Pauli Murray

Author: Pauli Murray

Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9780870495960

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Life in Trans Activism, A

Life in Trans Activism, A

Author: A. Revathi. As told to Nandini Murali

Publisher: Zubaan

Published: 2016-11-21

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9385932136

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When Revathi's powerful memoir, The Truth About Me, first appeared in 2011, it caused a sensation. Readers learned of Revathi's childhood unease with her male body, her escape from her birth family to a house of hijras (the South Asian generic term for transgender people), and her eventual transition to being the woman she always knew she was. This new book charts her remarkable journey from relative obscurity to becoming India's leading spokesperson for transgender rights and an inspiration to thousands. Revathi describes her life, her work in the NGO Sangama, which works with people across a spectrum of gender identities and sexual orientations, and how she rose from office assistant to director in the organization. Today she is an independent activist, theatre person, actor and writer, and works for the rights of transgender persons. In the second part of the book, Revathi offers the reader an insight into one of the least talked about experiences on the gender trajectory: that of being trans men. Calling several female-to-male trans persons her 'sons', Revathi puts before us their moving, passionate and sometimes tragic stories of marginalization, courage, resistance and triumph. An unforgettable book, A Life in Trans Activism will leave the reader questioning the 'safe' and 'comfortable' binaries of male/female that so many of us take for granted.


Restoried Selves

Restoried Selves

Author: Kevin K. Kumashiro

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9781560234630

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Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian / Pacific American Activists presents the first-person accounts of 20 activistslife stories that work against common stereotypes, shattering misconceptions and dispelling misinformation. These autobiographies challenge familial and cultural expectations and values that have traditionally forced queer Asian / Pacific Americans into silent shame because of their sexual orientation and/or ethnicity. Authors share not only their experiences growing up but also how those experiences led them to become social activists, speaking out against oppression. Many harmful untruthsor storiesabout queer Asian-Pacific Americans have been repeated so often, they are accepted as fact. Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian / Pacific American Activists provides a forum for voices often ignored in academic literature to re-story themselves, addressing a range of experiences that includes cultural differences and values, conflicts between different generations in a family or between different groups in a community, and difficulties and rewards of coming out. Those giving voice to their stories through narrative and other writing genres include the transgendered and intersexed, community activists, youths, and parents. The stories told in Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian / Pacific American Activists reflect on: personal experiencesbased on country of origin, educational background, religion, gender, and age populations served by activism, including the working poor, immigrants, adoptees, youth, women, and families different arenas of activism, including schools, governments, social services, and the Internet issues targeted by activism, including affirmative action, HIV/AIDS education, mental health, interracial relationships, and sexual violence institutions in need of change, including legal, religious, and educational entities and much more! Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian / Pacific American Activists is an essential read for academics and researchers working in Asian American studies, ethnic studies, gender studies, and queer studies, and for LGBTQ youth and their parents, teachers, and social service providers.


Being Heumann

Being Heumann

Author: Judith Heumann

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 080701950X

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A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Nonfiction "...an essential and engaging look at recent disability history."— Buzzfeed One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington—Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Candid, intimate, and irreverent, Judy Heumann’s memoir about resistance to exclusion invites readers to imagine and make real a world in which we all belong.


Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

Author: Lindsey R. Swindall

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2013-02-07

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1442207957

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Paul Robeson: A Life of Activism and Art is the biography of an African American icon and a demonstration of historian Lindsey R. Swindall's knack for thorough, detailed research and reflection. Paul Robeson was, at points in his life, an actor, singer, football player, political activist and writer, one of the most diversely talented members of the Harlem Renaissance. Swindall centers Robeson's story around the argument that while Robeson leaned toward Socialism, a Pan-African perspective is fundamental to understanding his life as an artist and political advocate. Many previous works on Robeson have focused primarily on his involvement with the US Communist Party, paying little attention to the broader African influences on his politics and art. With each chapter focused on a decade of his life, this book affords us a fresh look at his story, and the ways in which the struggles, successes and studies of his formative years came to shape him as an artist, activist and man later on. Robeson’s story is one not simply of politics and protest, but of a man’s lifelong evolution from an athlete to an entertainer to an indispensible man of letters and African American thought. Swindall neatly outlines the events of Robeson's life in a way that freshly presents him as a man whose work was influenced by more than just his circumstances, but by a spirit rooted in dedication to the African's place in American art and politics.


Assata

Assata

Author: Assata Shakur

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2016-02-15

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1783606819

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'Deftly written...a spellbinding tale.' The New York Times In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white state trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign to criminalize and suppress black nationalist organizations. This intensely personal and political autobiography reveals a sensitive and gifted woman. With wit and candour Assata recounts the formative experiences that led her to embrace a life of activism. With pained awareness she portrays the strengths, weaknesses and eventual demise of black and white revolutionary groups at the hands of the state. A major contribution to the history of black liberation, destined to take its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.