Ep. 71 Mothering and Social Justice with Dani McClain

Dani McClain is an author and journalist, who’s new book We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood is an examination of parenting, community, and social justice. Today we discuss advocating for one’s self as a privilege, how non-parents can aid in the work of parenting, and about what books we would and wouldn’t teaching in school.

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Books

• We Live for the We by Dani McClain
• Revolutionary Mothering edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, Mai’a Williams
• Patricia Hill Collins
• Audre Lorde
• Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
• The Joy Luck Club y Amy Tan
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Prozac Nation
• Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Stiff by Mary Roach
• The Mothers by Britt Bennett
• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Buddha by Karen Armstrong
• Paradise by Toni Morrison
• Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
• Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• A Separate Piece by John Knowles

• Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
• Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
• I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum
• Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
• Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
• Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
• The Chicana Motherwork Anthology by  Cecilia Caballero,Yvette Martínez-Vu, Judith Pérez-Torres, Michelle Téllez, and Christine Vega
• Waiting in the Wings by Cherrie Moraga
• Some Assembly Required by Anne LaMott
• Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott
• Something Like Beautiful by asha bandele
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• James Baldwin
• Another Country by James Baldwin
• Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• Heavy by Kiese Laymon
• Ibram X. Kendi
• Rebecca Traister
• How We Fight for our Lives by Saeed Jones
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
• The Bluest Eye
• A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. Hill
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
• Ava Gardner by Lee Server
• Wrapped in Rainbows by Valerie Boyd
• Baby Love by Rebecca Walker
• Robin D. G. Kelley
• Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelley

Everything Else

• The Nation
• Type Media Center
• “Serena Williams on Motherhood, Marriage, and Making Her Comeback” (Rob Haskell, Vogue)
• “I Was Pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman” (Tressie McMillan Cottom, Time)
• Monica Simpson (SisterSong)
• National Advocates for Pregnant Women
• “What It’s Like to Be Black and Pregnant When You Know How Dangerous That Can Be” (Dani McClain, The Nation)
• “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis” (Linda Villarosa, The New York Times)
• “Lost Mothers: Maternal Mortality In The U.S.” (NPR Series)
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Miami Herald
• Aya De Leon
• Kimya Moyo
• Death, Sex & Money (WYNC Studios)
• “Tayari Jones on Frills and Freedom” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
• “Tayari Jones & Carrie Mae Weems: What’s It Like Up There?” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
• The New York Times
• The Daily (The New York Times)
• “Can Elizabeth Warren Win It All?” (Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker)
• The New Yorker
• Hilton Als
• Emily Nussbaum
• Vincent Cunningham
• Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Cincinnati, OH)
• Shake it Records (Cincinnati, OH)
• Kathy Y. Wilson
• “Ep. 6 Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin — The Stacks Book Club (Chris Maddox)” (The Stacks)
• “Damon Young & Kiese Laymon: The “Good Dude” Closet” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
• “The Short Stacks 12: Damon Young//What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker” (The Stacks)
• “Ep. 34 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison — The Stacks Book Club (Renée Hicks)” (The Stacks)
• “Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison — The Stacks Book Club (DaMaris B. Hill)” (The Stacks)
• “Michelle Obama’s Favorite Book Of 2015 Is ‘The Light Of The World'” (Kristian Wilson, Bustle)

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The Stacks receivedWe Live for the We from the publisher. For more information click here.

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