Walking in My Joy
In These Streets
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4.2 • 16 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A new offering from the author of the hugely successful Mother of Black Hollywood.
Walking in My Joy is a collection of electric stories by the one and only, super hilarious Jenifer Lewis. Her commentary on what’s happening in the world today, told through her outrageous real-life adventures, will have you laughing out loud, while her insightful messages touch your soul.
A self-described “traveling fool and nature freak,” Jenifer takes readers with her all over the world, from Cape Town to Bali; Washington, DC, to the Serengeti; Mongolia to St. Petersburg; and Argentina to Antarctica to demonstrate how she walks in her joy by seeking pleasure in everyday encounters. Every step of the way you’ll be doubled over with laughter as she faints at the Obamas’ holiday party; awakens to a swollen face and has to go to the hospital during the height of the Covid pandemic; an alien visitation; a successful takedown of a conman; as well as meeting a handsome Maasai warrior and being chased by a Cape buffalo.
An actress, activist, and mental health advocate, Jenifer Lewis imparts ways to love yourself that will allow you to deflect negative energy and keep people who may come to take your joy in check. She stresses the importance of fully living to your greatest ambitions and taking the time to admire the world’s natural gifts. She also encourages embracing each other’s uniqueness as a way of finding societal healing. Walking in My Joy is a riveting and enthralling journey.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jenifer Lewis is done suffering fools. The scene-stealing, award-winning veteran actress makes that clear in this sizzling collection of essays. Having shared her backstory in her earlier memoir, The Mother of Black Hollywood, Lewis now has the freedom to talk about any topic of her choosing, and she doesn’t waste that opportunity. Each segment has the cathartic feel of a primal scream, with the actress providing unfiltered takes on topics like the conman who bilked her out of thousands of dollars and the social-reform initiatives that she holds dear. We were especially moved by her relationship with her assistant D.J., who would become known to millions as Shangela of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame. Through it all, Lewis proudly keeps her diva spirit intact, whether she’s at the White House or in the Serengeti. Lewis isn’t ready for a bow—she wants to bring down the house.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lewis (The Mother of Black Hollywood), star of ABC's black-ish, presents a no-holds-barred look at her life as an actor and Black woman in America. "You know me," she writes, "I'm comfortable front and center," before proving just that via a piquant combination of essays that veer from recollections about fainting at a White House Christmas reception to her whirlwind weekly schedule. In the irreverent "Dicktimized," recalling a love affair with the manager of her local gym, Lewis drolly muses "there is nothing as good for the ego as a desperate man hitting your line daily, whispering sweet nothings in your ear." While the humor never wanes, she also digs into more serious topics, such as her tough childhood growing up in poverty-stricken Kinloch, Mo., in the 1960s; her reactions to national tragedies, including the 2015 massacre at the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C.; her anxieties around "the Orange Man's candidacy" ("This thing is a fast food glutton/ Got his finger on the button," she writes in a poem titled "This Thing"); and Black history in America, a "relay race," she writes, "that still in progress." Taken together, the essays are as dynamic and vibrant as Lewis herself. Fans are lucky to be in the front row for this.
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