Activist Reading List: Expand Your Mind, Strengthen Your Movement

Reading is fundamental. It gives us options to learn through either information or imagination and has so many gems of wisdom waiting for all of us. I encourage everyone to continue learning (and never stop). As you move into change work, you'll find that a book (and the words within it) will always be inherently political...such as life. Often folks ask me what's on my shelf and what literature I recommend for fledgling activists. So, here it is! Enjoy!

Getting Started: Foundations of Activism

These books provide an essential groundwork for understanding systems of power and social change.

• “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” – Paulo Freire
• “Sister Outsider” – Audre Lorde
• “The New Jim Crow” – Michelle Alexander (My frequent shelf reference!)
• “Are Prisons Obsolete?” – Angela Davis
• “How to Be an Antiracist” – Ibram X. Kendi (Another frequent shelf reference!)

Revolutionary Movements & Organizing

Learn from those who have built movements before us and discover the strategies that made them powerful.

• “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle” – Angela Davis
• “The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History” – David F. Walker
• “No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age” – Jane McAlevey
• “Abolition. Feminism. Now.” – Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie
• “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us” – Mariame Kaba

Imagination, Creativity & Radical Futures

Because activism isn't just about resistance—it's about dreaming up something better.

• “Emergent Strategy” – adrienne maree brown
• “Pleasure Activism” – adrienne maree brown
• “The Dispossessed” (fiction) – Ursula K. Le Guin
• “Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements” – Walidah Imarisha & adrienne maree brown

Activism & Everyday Resistance

Books that remind us that activism isn’t just for the streets—it’s in our everyday choices, conversations, and communities.

• “So You Want to Talk About Race” – Ijeoma Oluo
• “Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot” – Mikki Kendall (One of my personal faves!)
• “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)” – Dean Spade
• “The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart” – Alicia Garza
• “Prison Industrial Complex For Beginners” – James Braxton Peterson

 

How to Use This Reading List

Start a Book Club! Gather friends, coworkers, or classmates to read and discuss these works.

Journal Your Thoughts. Write reflections on important points and how they apply to your life.

Take Action. Don’t just read—apply what you learn in your community.

Support Radical Bookstores. If possible, purchase from Black- and Indigenous-owned bookstores or independent booksellers. Bezos has enough money!