Required Reading.

One Friday evening a couple weeks ago, a friend of mine and I were discussing the area I study in grad school (sexual assault and rape culture among African-American women and the response or lack of by Black feminism) and she asked me for a list of books to read because I "seem like I'd know some good ones." Comments like that always make me smile.

Instead of sharing my reading list with just her, I decided I'd share it with you all as well. This list focuses all on women and mostly on women of color. It includes both fiction and nonfiction but all are great pieces. These are in no particular order. The bold titles are the books/articles I found most eye-opening.


Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color by Kimberle Crenshaw 
I read this for class during my first semester of grad school and it opened my eyes to SO much
 
Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
It's 63 pages of marvelous thought on being and "grooming" a feminist. Just read it

Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America's Prison Nation by Beth Richie
Read this for class (Gender Violence and Criminalization) last semester and it's so great. And yes, Michelle Alexander is on my list

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle McGuire

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
This is a new work of fiction by Gay but she does it so incredibly well. Really broadens horizons about the types of women out there and how we have every right to be as messy and messed up as anyone else

Beloved by Toni Morrison 

But Some of Us Are Brave: All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men: Black Women's Studies by Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith
This is an anthology I used for a paper for school and it's got some good tips. I haven't read it in it's entirety


Happy reading!
xx

**I'll update this as I run across more pieces I find important.

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