Feminist Five

"Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling thatIn the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from theirIn The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer anything is possible within themselves"--Princess Nokia, musician and“Documents centuries of techniques designed to limit progress in the blackoriginal lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now partHealth Care, author T.R. Reid describes the methods that other industrialized co-founder of the Smart Girl Club community. Although some of the material may be upsetting, this is a bookof Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family’s democracies have used to provide healthcare for citizens for far less than what l that should absolutely be included in the curriculum." – Starred review, Schoolands and opens a dialogue with history. is spent for health care in the United States. These countries, in doing so for In Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocateLibrary Connection In An American Sunrise, Harjo finds blessings in the abundance of herless money, provide universal coverage for all their citizens. Alok ho Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary.meland and confronts the site where her people, and other indigenous When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal blackfamilies, essentially disappeared. From her memory of her mother’s death, to her beginnings in the T.R. Reid describes his purpose in writing this book to “search the developed world for effective health care participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racistnative rights movement, to the fresh road with her beloved, Harjo’s personal life intertwines with systems and take lessons from the ones that work best.” Not surprisingly, Reid finds positives and negatives in backlash that rolls back those wins. We Are Not Yet Equal examines five of these moments: The end of thetribal histories to create a space for renewed beginnings. Her poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of livingmany of the systems he evaluates in an unbiased fashion. His conclusion that all of these other plans spend "Thank God we have Alok. And I'm learning a thing or two myself."--Billy Porter, Emmy award-winningCivil War and Reconstruction was greeted with Jim Crow laws; the promise of new opportunities in the Northin the ruins of injustice. less on health care administration than the United States, achieve better outputs than the US system, and actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer during the Great Migration was limited when blackscover all citizens within their countries is irrefutable. were physically blocked from moving away from the South; the Supreme “An American Sunr“Not many writers Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shuttingise is full of celebration, crisis, brokenness and healing, with poems that rely on of any ilk… can match T.R. Reid’s ability to bring a light, witty touch to really"When reading this book, all I feel is kindness."--Sam Smith, Grammy and Oscar award-winning down of public schools throughout the South; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act oflyric techniques like repetition, avoidance of temporal specifics and the urge serious topics–like health policy around the globe. ” –New America Foundation singer and 1965 led toto speak songwriter collectively… ” laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionately

"A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change."-- Kirkus Reviews, starred reviewtargeted blacks; and the election of President Obama led to an outburst of violence including—Daisy Fried, New York Times the death of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as well as the election of Donald Trump.

“It’stimeforanewbeautyparadigm. ” ― AlokVaid-Menon

Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the

normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts

physical and emotional violence.

The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and

how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link

between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against

gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power. ” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.