1. Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian/Pacific American Activists

[littlebutfierce]

I am so excited that this community exists! I have major issues w/the white feminist Inga Muscio (especially w/her book on racism), but one of her ideas that I liked was to only consume media by women for a period of time, I think a year, just to shift her thinking a little. While I won't be doing that for POCs, I think the prompt to deliberately read POC authors will be v. v. good for me. I hope folks will keep posting link lists of POC authors as they find them. I'll be searching for one of YA writers, myself, & will post if I find a useful one.

I write brief notes on my reading journal (furyofvissarion), & I'll cross-post the POC ones here. I'm afraid I generally don't write v. long/in-depth reviews (I'd never get myself to do them!), but hopefully @ least mentioning what I'm reading will help expose some authors to other folks.

1. Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian/Pacific American Activists - Edited by Kevin K. Kumashiro, Ph.D.

I was chuffed to see a few folks I know in here, hee. Besides that, I definitely appreciated that they included mixed-race folks, & obviously there was also a lot of talk about the pressure to either be queer or Asian, depending on which situation you're in. One essay talked about starting a group for queer Asians & getting a lot of resistance for wanting to keep it closed (to queer Asians). Ohhhhh I could identify w/that one. In this person's case, it was even suggested that they allow white men who were interested in Asians (rice queens!!) to attend events. Barf. Anyway, this is the sort of book that I think is radical just for existing; a lot of the content felt like conversations I've had w/my friends, or journal entries I've written, & it was v. validating to see these concerns shared publicly in print.

The Harlem Hellfighters

[sanguinity]

4. Walter Dean Myers, The Harlem Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage

The 369th Infantry Regiment was a black WWI regiment whose mere existence was so troublesome to the United States Army, that the Army signed the 369th over to French command for the duration of the war. Even without adequate training, even having to fight with unfamiliar weapons under the command of officers they couldn't understand, the 369th performed valiantly, never giving up ground to the Germans and never allowing any of their men to be taken prisoner. This volume is written for kids, but it isn't a lightweight gloss on the material: it runs 150 pages, and Myers uses the space well.

( The awesome story of the Harlem Hellfighters )

( Other POC-narrated resources about the Hellfighters )