Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY series in New Political Science) by Alethia Jones


Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY series in New Political Science)
Title : Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY series in New Political Science)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1438451148
ISBN-10 : 9781438451145
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 356
Publication : First published November 1, 2014
Awards : Judy Grahn Award (2015), Lambda Literary Award Lesbian Memoir (2015)

As an organizer, writer, publisher, scholar-activist, and elected official, Barbara Smith has played key roles in multiple social justice movements, including Civil Rights, feminism, lesbian and gay liberation, anti-racism, and Black feminism. Her four decades of grassroots activism forged collaborations that introduced the idea that oppression must be fought on a variety of fronts simultaneously, including gender, race, class, and sexuality. By combining hard-to-find historical documents with new unpublished interviews with fellow activists, this book uncovers the deep roots of today's identity politics and intersectionality and serves as an essential primer for practicing solidarity and resistance.

Aint Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith (SUNY series in New Political Science) Reviews

  • Julia

    I found this book due to a challenge in the SRC group to read a book which had won or was nominated for a
    Lambda Literary Award. I had read
    Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology in a college course that was cross-listed in Black Studies and Women's Studies, so I had some knowledge of Barbara Smith and Kitchen Table Press but not of her other experiences nor that she had moved to Albany around the time that I had left there.

    This was a fascinating retrospective and discussion of how Black lesbian feminism evolved and how to organize, even if I didn't always agree on whether intersectionality should require multi-issue actions.

    At the time the book was put together,
    Barbara Smith was serving as an elected representative on the Albany Common Council, which led to an interesting discussion about whether this is a form of selling out. In her words "How can I stick it to the man, if I am the man?"

  • Ed

    A life's work of a preeminent black lesbian feminist revolutionary is documented in this collection of writings and interviews. Barbara Smith was known in the 80s for penning manifestos, publishing books, and definitely a thought leader, but really enjoyed hearing insights from recent years about her transition from organizing to local politics.

  • Karen

    Really well done, I'm impressed by both the editors and by Barbara Smith herself. It's an unusual format - a collection of primary sources and original interviews that can be read straight through like a single work - and it was done very carefully. Smith herself is so smart and insightful. I found myself dog-earing pages and underlining parts.