“This book is an act of fierce love and advocacy, and it is urgently necessary.” —Samantha Irby

“My wish is that every white woman who calls herself a feminist (as I do) will read this book in a state of hushed and humble respect. Mikki Kendall is calling out white feminists here—and it’s long overdue that we drop our defenses, listen to her arguments carefully, and then change our entire way of thinking and behaving. As Kendall explains in eloquent and searing simplicity, any feminism that focuses on inequality between men and women without addressing the inequalities BETWEEN women is not only useless, but actually harmful. In the growing public conversation about race, class, status, privilege, and power, this text is essential reading.”—Elizabeth Gilbert

“Mikki Kendall tells it like it is, and this is why she has long been a must-read writer for me: incisive, clear-eyed, and rightly willing to challenge readers when necessary. Her exploration of how feminists’ fight for liberation has too often left poor people, Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color behind is critical reading for anyone who is or wants to be involved in work addressing complex and longstanding inequalities.” —Nicole Chung

Mikki Kendall Discusses “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot.” She will be joined in conversation by Erika L. Sánchez. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

Presented in partnership with the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture

At the Co-op

About the book: Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others? In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, “Hood Feminism” delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.

About the author: Mikki Kendall is a writer, speaker, and blogger whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, TIME, Salon, Ebony, Essence, and elsewhere. An accomplished public speaker, she has discussed race, feminism, violence in Chicago, tech, pop culture, and social media on NPR’s Tell Me More, Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post, BBC Women’s Hour, Huffington Post Live, as well as at universities across the country. In 2017, she was awarded Best Food Essay from the Association of Food Journalists for her essay on hot sauce, Jim Crow, and Beyoncé. She co-edited the Locus nominated anthology “Hidden Youth,” and is part of the Hugo-nominated team of editors at Fireside Magazine. A veteran, she lives in Chicago with her family.

About the interlocutor: Erika L. Sánchez is poet, novelist, and essayist, her debut poetry collection, “Lessons on Expulsion” was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” is a New York Times Bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist. She was a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, and a recent recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. She has recently been appointed the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at DePaul University and is part of the inaugural core faculty of the Randolph College Low Residency MFA Program.

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Tags: Chicago, COVID-19, Erika L. Sánchez, Hood Feminism, Hyde Park, Mikki Kendall, The Seminary Co-op Bookstores