Synopses & Reviews
Talking Back: Voices of Color (Red Letter Press, 2015), presents an unusually diverse group of writers speaking out on issues affecting communities of color. Contributors share tales of survival, explore little-known history, and offer insightful cultural reviews. Nellie Wong, a widely published Bay Area poet and social justice activist, is the book's editor and author of the introduction, a striking meditation on the importance of "talking back" in asserting identity and power on an individual and collective level.
Like Wong, the book's contributors are involved in community organizing. Based in a number of locations, their identities include Asian/Pacific American, Black, indigenous North American and Aboriginal Australian, Latino, Palestinian, immigrant, feminist, youth, elder, LGBTQ, students, unionists, former prisoners, and more. Make no mistake about it, many of the writers are out-front radicals. Their aim is to communicate and mobilize. Speaking from and to the grassroots, their offerings are readable, persuasive, free from academic jargon, and rich with personal experience.
Some highlights include: Nancy Reiko Kato's discussion of the contributions of women of color to the movement for reproductive rights; an interview with 90-something Norma Abdulah, a radical Black activist and Harlem resident; Australian aboriginal leader Lex Wotton's discussion of racism and police violence Down Under; Palestinian exile Farouk Abdel-Muhti's harrowing description of being held in U.S. prisons without charges for nearly two years following 9/11; Miriam Padilla's account of her evolution from an impoverished "graffiti girl" to single mother, college student and political organizer.
African American scholar, unionist, and former civil rights organizer James Wright calls the book "a treasure" by a "rainbow of radical authors." Another reviewer, Arab American artist and writer Happy Hyder, says the book's "fearless and varied voices" reveal "the true meaning of political action." Sociologist Dr. Jesse Díaz, Jr. says the book will lead to increased understanding of the activist of color's "toils for equality and justice." Alice Goff, a Black immigrant labor leader and community activist, predicts that even readers who don't share the opinions of the authors may "come away with a different perspective and possibly be moved to question the status quo." Karin Aguilar-San Juan, an associate professor and Filipina American lesbian, describes the writings as resonant with "pain and rage... light and power and hope."
Synopsis
Literary Nonfiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. African American Studies. Latino/Latina Studies. LGBT Studies. Native American Studies. Women's Studies. TALKING BACK: VOICES OF COLOR is a dynamic anthology featuring voices of youth, political prisoners, immigrants, and history-makers. Essays by a multi-racial, intergenerational mix of 25 Black, Latino, Native American, and LGBTQ community organizers. Topics include quality education and environmental justice, indigenous land rights and international solidarity, film and book reviews, hidden histories of women of color, and tales of endurance and survival.
You KNOW something's worth reading when it's banned by Texas prison censors TALKING BACK: VOICES OF COLOR was refused delivery to Chicano political prisoner Alvaro Luna Hernandez because of the anthology's article on prisoners' strike that took place in Georgia in 2010. Censors claim that the piece by former political prisoner Mark Cook contains material that a reasonable person would construe as written solely for the purpose of communicating information designed to achieve a breakdown of prisons through offender disruption such as strikes, riots or security threat group activity. Hell yeah Read it and be inspired
Synopsis
A dynamic anthology featuring voices of youth, political prisoners, feminists, immigrants and history-makers. Introduction by poet Nellie Wong. "A rainbow of radical authors writing on many of the critical issues of today -- education, racism, healthcare, LGBT, immigration, the penal system, feminism... This book is a treasure." --James Wright, Black scholar, unionist, former civil rights organizer