Black Radical Bookclub is here!
Black Radical Bookclub is here!
Starting strong with Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun L. Harrison <3
Welcome to Black Radical Bookclub. We be reading.
I am wild excited to be in community with y’all over books. The intimacy of learning and growing together is the shit. This is exactly my shit. I want to take this one book per month. If you cannot read the book, no worries! You can still participate. I’ll be making videos discussing each section as book club goes along.
Here’s our schedule for September 2022.
Week of Sept 4: Studies on Beauty
Question: what is Beauty, where does it come from, and who does it serve?
Readings:
“In The Name of Beauty” by Tressie McMillan Cottom (essay from her book Thick: And Other Essays)
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings
Ar’n’t I A Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South by Deborah Gray White | Chapter One: Jezebel and Mammy: The Mythology of Female Slaves
Week of Sept 11: Self-Love and Desirability
Questions: What are the political forces influencing how I love my own body? How does fat phobia and the politics of desirability fracture our relationship with ourselves and others?
Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 1-32
Week of Sept 18: Anti-Fat Propaganda
Question: How has the state weaponized the idea of health and personal responsibility against its populace, especially fat folks?
Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 33-84
Week of Sept 25: The Case for Gender Abolition
Question: In what was are gender performance and Beauty the same? Can we be critical of Beauty without questioning the gender binary as well?
Readings: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison, pages 85-105
If you desperately want to read the book or any above materials but cannot afford it, email me! If you want to sponsor a book purchase for someone else in the group, email me!! Literally just respond to this email. No reader left behind.
happy reading!!
isi <3
pssst. side note: how cute would merch be? I may or may not be planning some cute ass crewnecks. you know, sum for the girls, to be cozy in the fall. founding members get first dibs, obviously. if I were to make a lil sum for you to spend a lil coin on:
Hey, I haven't read in a year and I've been meaning to read Fearing the Black Body so this is great timing! Also, I chose whatever on the merch but if you need something specific, that tea sounds good :)
Hii, so excited about reading this. I had heard of this book from the Kind of Reads on Youtube. The author and him have done several interviews discussing this. Highly recommend those as well! Thank you for holding this space (: