radical futures reading list
In a year surrounded by hopelessness, spending a lot of time alone with my own thoughts and body, I found myself reaching for something to guide myself towards life.
For most of my adult life, I’ve been dissatisfied with current ways of being and systems of power, increasingly so as I learn more about our world. A gracious, empathetic, radically loving friend suggested that I read one of adrienne maree brown’s works of writing, and that opened the door to a whole community of scholars and activists who offered new (at least new to me) ways of thinking that resonated with me deeply. The works included here come from a variety of scholars, activists, dreamers, creators. It’s important to acknowledge that much of this work is largely done by women of color, particularly black, indigenous, and disabled woman, who put forth their labor not only to survive but to thrive and to create a better world for us all.
I have divided the reading list into three categories — justice and creating communities of care, anti-capitalist economics / anti-racist politics, and visionary fiction. Of course, the lines between these categories are blurry, since all these ideas are deeply intertwined. This list is absolutely not comprehensive, just an offering from what I have been drawn to and what I have explored so far. This list is always in progress.
“All that you touch you change / All that you change changes you / The only lasting truth is change”—Octavia Butler
Justice & Creating Communities of Care
Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in this Crisis by Dean Spade
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
We Will Not Cancel Us: Breaking the Cycle of Harm by adrienne maree brown
The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence by The Care Collective
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, Edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown
Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture by Nora Samaran
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Anti-Capitalist Economics /Anti-Racist Politics
Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe
Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Visionary Fiction
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
Octavia’s Parables podcast by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
