Naked
Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts
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4.8 • 15 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Provocative essays on body image by black women.
Candid, witty, and insightful, Naked is a compelling collection of essays that captures what today's black women think about their bodies-from head to toe.
Tackling such issues as hair texture, skin color, weight, and sexuality, it follows women on their paths to acceptance-and enjoyment -of their unique features...to a place where it doesn't matter how big the breasts or how long the legs, only what is in the heart.
Includes contributions from women of all ages and walks of life, including such notables as:
- Iyanla Vanzant
- Jill Scott
- Kelis
- Tracee Ellis Ross
- Jill Nelson
- Hilda Hutcherson
- asha bandele
- Melyssa Ford
Edited by Ayana Byrd and Akiba Solomon
Foreword by Sonia Sanchez
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"These bodies are for ourselves," says Sonia Sanchez in the introduction to this candid and provocative set of essays, all centered squarely on black women's bodies-and the myths and misogynies located therein. Byrd has written for Vibe and Rolling Stone; Solomon is a former senior editor at the Source and current health editor for Essence. Together, they have gathered black women from a variety of walks of life, from hip hop icon Melyssa Ford and superstar singer Kelis to an AIDS-afflicted feminist activist, and a former prostitute serving twenty-five years for murdering "a john... who became the unintended victim of my rage and depression and self-hatred." In between are notes on "My Tush" ("Butt, ass, bum, booty, rump, onion, junk in the trunk, ba-dunck-ka-dunk, rear, backside"), "Ho Gear," "The Curl," "Femme Invisibility" and a host of other hot button body issues. As empowering as it is demystifying, this book does not avert its gaze for a moment.
Customer Reviews
Wow!
Once I started I couldn’t put it down. Each story touched my heart and moved me to tears. While reading it I was saying it’s like we Black women go through the same thing. Wonderful and insightful reading.
Amazing!
This novel is so relatable and inspirational! I hope that it ends up in the hands of all women of color.
Marvelous!
One of the best, most touching, introspective and relatable books I have EVER read. Thank you Ayana Byrd & Akiba Solomon, for helping to make space for conversations that need to be had from voices that MUST be heard.