Makenna’s Reading List
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Makenna’s Reading List *
Booked and Busy
Here you can find texts that have informed, challenged, and inspired me along the way. In sharing these pieces I hope to present the foundation of the work I am most interested in, as well as acknowledge the brilliant thinkers that influencing my ideas. I have also provided some links to articles I have been quoted and/or published in.
What I’m Reading Now: Goodreads
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A Care-Based Approach for Dismantling theStrong Black Woman Schema
A Miseducation: Perspectives on Sexuality Education from Black Women in the US South
Black Female Sexuality: Intersectional Identities and Historical Contexts
Emotions and Sexual Safety Decision Making among Black Young Women
Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color
The Process of Becoming a Sexual Black Woman: A Grounded Theory Study
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All About Love by bell hooks is a beautiful work that challenges how we understand and practice love in our current society. Known for her social activism and work in Black feminism, hooks encourages individuals to engage in radical love not only for themselves, but also for others. More here.
Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley is a collection of prayer, poetry, and spiritual practice centering the Black interior world. More here.
Black Women’s Reproductive Health & Sexuality: A Holistic Public Health Approach by Regina Davis Moss, PhD, MPH and other authors is a thorough resource for public health professionals exploring the intersection of physical, mental, and social determinants of Black women’s sexual and reproductive health. More here.
Beloved by Toni Morrison is a hauntingly beautiful read about Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman who is tormented by the ghost of her baby daughter, killed by Sethe in efforts to protect her from slavery’s horrors. The pain and suffering in the novel parallels its love and tales of the Black human experience. Big love to Toni Morrison. More here.
Chain Gain All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenya - Welcome to Chain-Gang All-Stars, the popular and highly controversial programme inside America's prison system. In packed arenas, watched by millions of live-stream viewers, prisoners compete as gladiators for the ultimate prize: their freedom. More here.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo - Teeming with life and crackling with energy — a love song to modern Britain and black womanhood. More here.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasiis a historical fiction novel that follows the lineage of two sisters in 18th century Ghana. Each chapter introduces a new character of each sister’s bloodline, covering three hundred years of oppression experienced both in Ghana and in the United States. More here.
How to Love a Jamaican - Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. More here.
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts provides an excellent review of reproductive violence as it has been imposed upon Black American women. Roberts details both historical and present violations of the sexual and reproductive rights of Black women and girls in the United States. More here.
Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought - African American lesbian writers and theorists have made extraordinary contributions to feminist theory, activism, and writing over the past 200 years. Mouths of Rain, the companion anthology to Beverly Guy-Sheftall's classic Words of Fire, traces the long history of intellectual thought produced by Black Lesbian writers, spanning the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century. More here.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler tells the story of a young Lauren Olamina, who survives the collapse of society and develops a new belief system—Earthseed—while searching for safety, community, and sustainability in a dystopian United States (more dystopian than it already is, if that seems possible). More here.
Sula by Toni Morrison recounts the story of Sula and Nel, two Black women living in the fictional town of Medallion, Ohio. The novel includes themes of friendship, identity, community, sexuality, family, and betrayal. An absolute must-read for Black girls and women. More here.
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Creative Writing Publication: El Sangre Negro by Makenna Lindsay in The Griot Summer 2022
On Racial Disparities in Advanced Placement Courses: More low-income, Hispanic students taking AP classes, narrowing disparities
On 2020 Election Results: American University community reacts to news of Biden’s victory
On the Derick Chauvin Verdict: AU community shares concerns and relief over guilty verdict in Derek Chauvin trial
On Protesting in Summer 2020: Black Immigrants Joined in Solidarity With George Floyd Protesters