LIT LIT: DEC
Theme: Give the gift of Sisterhood
While December usually marks the end of a year. For us, it’s not the end of anything. Yeah, we’re wrapping up a hell of a year but if (the shitshow that was) 2016 taught us anything… it taught us resilience.Guess what though? The magic in melanin is that it shields us with thick skin.
Resilience is coded in our DNA.
The year reaffirmed us of our resilience and toughened our solidarity. Resilience + solidarity = power in spirit + strength in numbers. WE ARE GLOWIN’ UP. By the numbers, women of color in 2016:
are consequently a growing demographic - comprising more than 36.3% percent of our nation’s female population and approximately 18 percent of the entire U.S. population
make up about 33% of the female workforce (representing a larger percentage of the US Labor Force)
are rising in entrepreneurship with currently 1.9 million firms being majority owned by women of color (black women are starting businesses at three to five times the rate of all businesses)
are rising in graduation rates (have a higher percentage of college completion than ever before)
are making strides in advanced studies - the number of master’s degrees earned by women of color doubled from 1997 to 2007, and the number of doctoral degrees we earned increased by 63% over the same time period.
showed up and made historic wins on Election Day, quadrupling women of color in the Senate and now make up 31.7% of the 114th US Congress
Women of color are hustlin’ and bustlin’, workin’ and twerkin’, making and creating within and around an expanding world full of possibility. The magic that flows through our veins and sweat dripping from our pores does more than (literally) add color to the world, it’s building it.
And we need to build it together.
For this edition of Lit Lit, our theme is the gift of sisterhood. Here is a gift guide for women by women celebrating + highlighting + empowering (and even calling out): WOMEN.
If you’re low on $$, you can print out the versions that are free and wrap ‘em up and style ‘em up in a cute holiday bow or gift set for your sister, mother, cousin, auntie, grandmother, friend, and/or enemy this holiday season (even enemies yes, we need everyone on board).
ALONE
By Maya Angelou
A poem about the need to build a community around ourselves to get through life; we cannot do it alone.
(free)
GENDER AS SERIALITY: THINKING ABOUT WOMEN AS A SOCIAL COLLECTIVE
By Iris Marion Young
Understanding women as a series, rather than a group, this text entails the recognition that the category woman is not defined by any common biological or psychological characteristics; rather, individuals are positioned as woman by a set of material and immaterial social constructs that are the product of previous human actions
(free if you’re a student or $14)
-- BUT I KNOW YOU, AMERICAN WOMAN
By Judit Moschkovich
This excerpt from This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color examines a Jewish-Latina’s perspective through experience that a lack of knowledge about other cultures is a basis for cultural oppression.
EXCERPT: pg. 79
(free)
OUR GANG OF FOUR: FRIENDSHIPS AND WOMEN’S LIBERATION
By Amy Kesselman with Heather Booth, Vivian Rothstein, and Naomi Weisstein
This excerpt explores the role of intense friendship among women defining feminism together.
EXCERPT: pg. 25
(free or $31.14)
SISTERHOOD IS FOREVER: THE WOMEN’S ANTHOLOGY FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
by Robin Morgan
An anthology of over 60 essays from diverse well-known feminist leaders plus energetic Gen X and Y activists -- is a composite mural of the female experience in America: where we've been, where we are, where we're going.
($16)
RAD WOMEN WORLDWIDE
By Miriam Klein Stahl
Released this past September, this book reads like a modern encyclopedia of some of the world’s most inspiring women – highlighting 40 women from 31+ countries.
($12)
Stay LIT!
by Flerine Atienza
@flerinecrystal
image credit : Sanaa K.
