Reclaiming Our Space

How Black Feminists Are Changing the World from the Tweets to the Streets

By: Feminista Jones

Narrated by: Melanie Taylor

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A treatise of Black women’s transformative influence in media and society, placing them front and center in a new chapter of mainstream resistance and political engagement

In Reclaiming Our Space, social worker, activist, and cultural commentator Feminista Jones explores how Black women are changing culture, society, and the landscape of feminism by building digital communities and using social media as powerful platforms. As Jones reveals, some of the best-loved devices of our shared social media language are a result of Black women’s innovations, from well-known, movement-building hashtags (#BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, and #BlackGirlMagic) to the now ubiquitous use of threaded tweets as a marketing and storytelling tool. For some, these online dialogues provide an introduction to the work of Black feminist icons like Angela Davis, Barbara Smith, bell hooks, and the women of the Combahee River Collective. For others, this discourse provides a platform for continuing their feminist activism and scholarship in a new, interactive way.

Complex conversations around race, class, and gender that have been happening behind the closed doors of academia for decades are now becoming part of the wider cultural vernacular - one pithy tweet at a time. With these important online conversations, not only are Black women influencing popular culture and creating sociopolitical movements but they are also galvanizing a new generation to learn and engage in Black feminist thought and theory and inspiring change in communities around them.

Hard-hitting, intelligent, incisive, yet bursting with humor and pop-culture savvy, Reclaiming Our Space is a survey of Black feminism’s past, present, and future, and it explains why intersectional movement building will save us all.

©2019 Feminista Jones (P)2019 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

“Smart, savvy, and unapologetically fierce.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“If you want to understand the rising preeminence of black women in our modern day sociopolitical landscape, you would be smart to start with Feminista Jones, a black woman writing and working at the forefront of our movements.” (Ijeoma Oluo, author of The New York Times best seller So You Want To Talk About Race)

“There’s a beautiful optimism about the power of social media throughout various chapters... Recommended for university-level courses on gender studies and new media studies as well as for general readers interested in the intersection of pop culture, feminist theory, racial justice, and activism.” (Library Journal, starred review)

“Jones’s entertaining book...astutely analyzes the nuances of black female identity.” (Publishers Weekly)

Excellent!!

Feminista is an extremely talented writer! I always love her work, and this book was much needed. I listened to this in two days and even though I consider myself a knowledgeable black feminist/womanist, I still learned a lot from this book. I cannot wait to go to her book reading next week! Thank you for making this. A must read!

Real life experiences coupled with historical data.

Great book! Quick but powerful read. I highly recommend for all Black women and anyone who cares about Black women.

A Must Listen/Read

I could NOT stop listening! I absolutely LOVED every second of this book. I even purchased the hard copy just to read a digest more of the information!

Flawlessly Intersectional

With wit, humor and firm direction Feminista Jones delivers a powerful and inspiring case to Reclaim Our Spaces. I highly recommend this book to Black boys and girls growing into world that is increasingly violent towards Black bodies, this book offers an opportunity for us to see each other in the struggle and become our greatest allies by amplifying the work and Black women and femmes whose objective is to free us all.

Excellent read

Author wrote unapologetically in her own voice. She does not shy away from speaking truth. It’s important to sit in our own discomfort right now and explore our personal growing pains. Excellent read and highly recommended.

WHAT A BOOK !

I was blown away ! i randomly was going thru the search and browse section just trying to find something stimulating to help get me out of my bad moment (the day I went to court and felt I was going to lose my child). I continued after mediating on Aaptiv looking for an answer to my displaced anger and confusion from the days events .... & here it is. This BOOK, it was the answer to almost everything i thought and questioned in life & I'M ONLY HALF WAY THRU IT, can't wait for her next GREAT listen . Keep it coming Feminist Jones. #youOKsis #blackgirlmagic