Pleasure Activism

How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life? Author and editor adrienne maree brown finds the answer in something she calls pleasure activism, a politics of healing and happiness that explodes the dour myth that changing the world is just another form of work. Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism. Her mindset-altering essays are interwoven with conversations and insights from other feminist thinkers, including Audre Lorde, Joan Morgan, Cara Page, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Together they cover a wide array of subjectsfrom sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugsbuilding new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.Building on the success of her popular Emergent Strategy, brown launches a new series of the same name with this volume, bringing readers books that explore experimental, expansive, and innovative ways to meet the challenges that face our world today. Books that find the opportunity in every crisis!adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and co-editor of Octavias Brood, is a social justice facilitator focused on black liberation, a doula/healer, and a pleasure activist. She lives in Detroit.PRAISE for Pleasure Activism:This is no self-help manualit's a weighty text that discusses everything from enthusiastic consent to U.S. drug policybut it's a genuine, well, pleasure to read as well. The book's open, identity-affirming view of sex is wildly empowering, particularly for young people who might not havehadthe idea ingrained in them thatintimatecontact with another person should always be initiated out of a desire for pleasure.Vogue[brown] demonstrateshow we can tap into our emotional and erotic desires to organize against oppression. Colorlinesadrienne maree brown...continues to stake her claim as one of our most critical thinkers and strategists by intentionally combining the power of story-telling with practical applications to help readers conjure their own definition of pleasure and how it is inextricably linked to every part of our existence. Monica Simpson, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collectiveadrienne marie brown is back, again dropping wisdom about alternative ways to live at this deeply fucked-up moment ... Let this book be the best Valentines Day gift youve ever given yourself. Vice/Broadlyadrienne maree brown dives deep, head first, into a fast swirling pool of pleasure-related topics. She swims her way from one end of the pool to the other with some help from her body-wise, experienced, friends. This book is all at once so cool, and so hot, with a rainbow of glorious compleXXXities. Pleasure Activism is bound to make a huge splash! Annie Sprinkle, author of Explorers Guide to Planet OrgasmFor Every BodyEngaging with politics and social justice issues, whether it's climate change, race, or gender, can feel like work (and it is). Adrienne maree brown makes the case that you can feel good while doing so ... [Pleasure Activism] will challenge you to rethink your approach to changing the world. MashablePleasure Activismis an invitation to know ourselves and be in conversation with the desire of our lustful imaginations... [I]t makes our personal liberation irresistible. Jasmine Burnett, activist and anti-oppression consultantadrienne maree brown elucidates a philosophy of Pleasure Activism to transform individuals and so the world. Her explicit instructions encourage orgasms of the body, mind and spirit. First, in support of our own authentic lives, then so that we can live in loving community with others. Its like a wise and juicy black goddess reopened Eden and said, 'Okay, everybody, lets try this again.' Veronica Vera, author & founder of Miss Veras Finishing School For Boys Who Want to Be Girls