num_pages: 184
description: Explores the terror grace and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.Emotionally raw and deeply reflective Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However as a mother feminist writer and intellectual Perry offers an unfettered expression of love--finding beauty and possibility in life--and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin W. E. B. DuBois Emily Dickinson Toni Morrison Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham Alabama; and New England prep schools.With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes Breathe offers a broader meditation on race gender and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.
language: English
title: Breathe: A Letter to My Sons
publisher: Beacon Press