The Purpose of Power
How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
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3.9 • 20 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter
“Excellent and provocative . . . a gateway [to] urgent debates.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time • Marie Claire • Kirkus Reviews
In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote:
Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.
With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do.
Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve.
This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
For activist Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter has always been more than a hashtag: She helped launch the movement. Raised in a politically engaged family, Garza understood from an early age the importance of building communities and coalitions. Her engrossing memoir gives a candid account of her experiences as an activist—from her early days working on affordable-housing campaigns in her native San Francisco to 2013, when her anguished social media response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer prompted her to launch the #blacklivesmatter hashtag, sparking a global push to disrupt systemic racism. Garza is clear-eyed and objective throughout this inspiring journey, and she isn’t afraid to share both the bitter disappointment and the vital lessons learned when her battles weren’t successful. The Purpose of Power will have you totally invested in Garza’s story and her mission.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Black Lives Matter cofounder Garcia debuts with an informative and inspirational history of the movement and her own evolution as an activist. Raised by her African-American mother and Jewish stepfather, Garza was one of only 10 Black students in her Tiburon, Calif., middle school in the 1990s, where her wealthy, white peers "emulated what they believed was the stylishly nihilistic lifestyle of impoverished Black people." She draws on her decade spent organizing in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco to share lessons on "the messy work of bringing people together," and describes the trajectory of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter from a 2013 Facebook post decrying the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer to the group behind the 2015 Freedom Ride to Ferguson, Mo., in the aftermath of Michael Brown's killing by a white police officer. Garza also details her recent efforts "to make Black people more powerful in politics" following the 2016 election, and critically assesses the elevation of "charismatic male figures" to positions of Black leadership. Drawing on feminist theory, political and economic history, and the principles of organizing, Garza makes a spirited and persuasive case for rethinking community activism in the era of social media. Progressive policy makers, activists, and voters will be galvanized.
Customer Reviews
Required Reading
For organizers, activists, and anyone doing the work of justice, this book is required reading.