Books
TEACHING WITH TENDERNESS:
TOWARD AN EMBODIED PRACTICE
Imagine a classroom that explores the twinned ideas of embodied teaching and a pedagogy of tenderness. Becky Thompson envisions such a curriculum–and a way of being–that promises to bring about a sea change in education.
Teaching with Tenderness follows in the tradition of bell hooks’s Teaching to Transgress and Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, inviting us to draw upon contemplative practices (yoga, meditation, free writing, mindfulness, ritual) to keep our hearts open as we reckon with multiple injustices. Read More…
JUSTONICS
A new collection of poems that crave color and insist on dancing, Justonics combines justice and ebonics to create a popular vernacular that breathes its way into music, art, and activism. Du Bois and Hancock (Herbie) become verbs, tomboys twirl on a fireman’s pole, and Buddha bells startle convention. Publisher: Dancing girl press. Read More…
MAKING MIRRORS: RIGHTING/WRITING BY REFUGEES
This project, to offer a volume of poetry by and for refugees, seeks to connect artistic voices of those fleeing violence from Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, and other war torn countries. Edited by Palestinian poet and aid worker, Jehan Bseiso and US poet and scholar, Becky Thompson, this volume will provide a multilingual, interactive, and collaborative collection of poems published as a book and as an on-line project. We see this offering as part of a long tradition of poetic responses to repression, the poems, a talisman for a world beyond displacement and exile. Among those whose work will be included in the collection are prominent poets Naomi Shihab Nye, Zeina Hashem Beck, Zeina Azzam, Marilyn Hacker, Mohsen Emadi and many others.
We would love to hear from you if you have a poem you would like to submit or if you know someone who might be interested in the project. We welcome poems in any form (including prose poems) and in all languages. Photography and interviews are also welcome for the on-line project. Read More…
SURVIVORS ON THE YOGA MAT: STORIES FOR THOSE HEALING FROM TRAUMA
Survivors on the Yoga Mat: Stories for those Healing from Trauma chronicles the struggles and hopes of people who are practicing yoga to heal from a range of traumas including sexual abuse, war, illness, loss, disaster, and addictions. About Survivors Angela Davis wrote, “This stunning collection of stories, including many of Becky Thompson’s own, reveals the emancipatory possibilities of yoga, but also reminds us that without deep, abiding practices of self care, there can be no radical social transformation.” North Atlantic Books (distributed by Random House September 2014) Read More…
ZERO IS THE WHOLE I FALL INTO AT NIGHT
Zero is the Whole I Fall into at Night. About Zero Sonia Sanchez wrote, “Intimate. Lyrical. Sensual sounds animate this first collection of poetry by Becky Thompson. Her poems are a landscape of intellect and beauty. Welcome my dear sister, to this thing called poetry.” Poetry Editor’s Selection Series from Main Street Rag Press (2011). A chapbook from the volume won the 2011 Creative Justice Poetry Prize. Read More…
WHEN THE CENTER IS ON FIRE: PASSIONATE SOCIAL THEORY FOR OUR TIMES
When the Center is on Fire: Passionate Social Theory for Our Times, co-authored with Diane Harriford. This book examines key 19th and 20th century sociological concepts while reframing them to help understand 21st century social upheavals including Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 attack, the Abu Ghraib prison abuses and the Columbine massacre. The book considers the work of Marx, Du Bois, Durkheim, and Weber along with contemporary theory offered by Anzaldúa, Collins, Lorde, and others. When the Center is on Fire was nominated for the 2010 Public History Prize. Read More…
FINGERNAILS ACROSS THE CHALKBOARD: POETRY AND PROSE ON HIV/AIDS FROM THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the African Diaspora, co-edited with Randall Horton and Michael Harper. Fingernails Across the Chalkboard is an international, multicultural anthology of literary criticism, poetry, fiction, visual art, and literary nonfiction on HIV/AIDS. Publication date coincided with the Gwendolyn Brooks Conference and World AIDS Day (25th year commemoration). Fingernails Across the Chalkboard was adapted into a play that premiered in Chicago and at the National Black Theater, Harlem, New York in March 2008. Read more…
A PROMISE AND A WAY OF LIFE: WHITE ANTIRACIST ACTIVISM
A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism is an ethnographic history of white antiracist activism in the United States from the 1950s to the present. Read More…
MOTHERING WITHOUT A COMPASS: WHITE MOTHER’S LOVE, BLACK SON’S COURAGE
Mothering Without a Compass: White Mother’s Love, Black Son’s Courage is a memoir interracial mothering, open adoption, sexuality, socialization, and loving. Mothering Without a Compass was chosen by the Book of the Month Club for their gay and lesbian series (Insight Out). Read More…
NAMES WE CALL HOME: AUTOBIOGRAPHY ON RACIAL IDENTITY
Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity edited by Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi. A twenty-six chapter volume of original autobiographical essays by scholars and activists about racial identity formation. Authors include: Angela Davis, June Jordan, Ruth Frankenberg, Cherríe Moraga, David Wellman and others. Read More…
A HUNGER SO WIDE AND SO DEEP: A MULTIRACIAL VIEW OF WOMEN’S EATING PROBLEMS
A Hunger So Wide and So Deep: A Multiracial View of Women’s Eating Problems is a feminist theory of the effects of trauma on women’s embodiment based on life history interviews with African American, Latina and white women. A featured book at the American Booksellers’ Association 1994 convention and selected for re-publication by the Quality Paperback Book Club. Thompson was awarded support from the Margaret Hartley Fund for Excellence in Writing By and About Women. Read More…
BEYOND A DREAM DEFERRED: MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION AND THE POLITICS OF EXCELLENCE
Beyond a Dream Deferred: Multicultural Education and the Politics of Excellence edited by Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi. Foreword by Derrick Bell. Beyond a Dream Deferred, a multidisciplinary anthology offering progressive perspectives on multicultural education, Includes chapters by Margaret Andersen, Estelle Disch, Troy Duster, Evelynn Hammonds, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Chandra Mohanty, Barbara Omolade, Cornel West and other theorists.
Beyond a Dream Deferred received the Gustavus Myers Award for Outstanding Book on Human Rights.
