sami schalk says at the beginning of the book that this is written for Black people, specifically Black disabled people, and the rest of us are welcome to sit and listen. as she reminds us throughout the book, listening to the people with the most marginalizations and those most oppressed by the state about liberation will help liberate the rest of us.

schalk is a fat queer Black disabled woman weaving together teaching, activism, and scholarship in Black disability politics. schalk examines "how Black people have engaged with disability as a political issue through exploration and analysis of the work of the Black panther party, the national Black women's health project, and 21st century Black disabled cultural workers" and recognizing the work the Black community has done for disability politics while not always calling it disability politics or centering disability. this work has often been left out of disability conversations and its erasure has contributed to much of the activism surrounding disability to be focused on white disabled people. i think this book is a great learning opportunity; not only is the framework of Black disabilty politics an important one, but i also learned a lot about the Black panther party and found particular interest in how the national Black women's health project worked to inform people of and protect people from HIV/AIDS.

some of the things schalk talked about regarding Black disability politics reminded me of what i've learned about harm reduction and addiction from indigenous people and were good reminders for me not to look at people through such a white, western lens (e.g. not relying on medical and legal frameworks, definitions, and diagnoses). if you're looking for a nonfiction book to read for pride, i recommend this book, even though it's not specifically centered on queerness. imani barbarin reads the audiobook, and i'm grateful thatdarnchat

CWs: ableism; HIV/AIDS; racism (general systemic, as well as medical and environmental)

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Content Warnings

The Tent Generations: Palestinian Poems by Mohammed Sawaie

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad

5.0

i realized the palestinian poetry i’ve read has been from ~2005 through now and focused on the western diaspora. the tent generations is a collection of 20th century poets, including people who survived the nakba and remained inside palestine after israel’s creation, their kids, palestinians in gaza, and palestinians in the west bank. poems were written by women and men (from what i read, all poets identified as one of the binary genders) from different educational backgrounds.

themes include yearning for freedom, a demand for equality with other citizens of the state, missing palestinians in other places, hope, and a connection to other struggles. poems look at massacres like kufr qasim, where in 1956 israeli border guards massacred 49 palestinian farm workers on their return home from their fields because of a curfew that had been imposed that night, of which the farmers were not aware.

there’s an intro section that covers the “social and cultural life of those palestinians who remained in israel in 1948” including a brief history of poetry. the arab tradition of poetry recitation and listening to the medium in a communal setting was further utilized when access to print materials decreased because of poverty and border issues and literacy was low. poetic festivals, or mahrajans, became literacy and political demonstrations.

grateful that the lapl had an ecopy of this!

cws: death; genocide; grief; violence

photo review here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7k0UrQxMwh/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA==

Content Warnings

This Is Why They Hate Us by Aaron H. Aceves

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

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