Status
Available
Publication
Boston, Massachusetts : Beacon Press, 2019.
Description
Biography & Autobiography. Sociology. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist 2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction) Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated) Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of loveâ??finding beauty and possibility in lifeâ??and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and res… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member WillowOne
In Breathe A Letter to my Sons Imani Perry shows both her vulnerability and her strength. She has written what I see as a love letter to her sons. A letter that shares their family history which includes life lessons of being African American in a White-dominated world in their ancestor's time and
Show More
in today's world. Ms. Perry talks to her sons about her own hopes and dreams as her boys grew and the hopes and dreams she has had, and still has, for them. For those of us that are not African American, I believe this book is a serious look at life on a daily basis. I think it is a look at how alike we all are in our wishes, hopes, dreams, etc. We only want what is best for our children and when your child is a young black man in 21st Century America it can be terrifying. Ms. Perry speaks to not just having one son but two in a world that would rather consume them than to see and help them flourish. Breathe is highly intellectual, emotional and thought-provoking. Show Less
LibraryThing member EllieNYC
As the title states, Breath is a letter to the author's young sons. It is a celebration of their beauty, their gifts, and the love of their mother for them as well as the bonds of the family, including and importantly extended family as well. It is also the outcry of a mother who knows her children
Perry, who also wrote an outstanding biography of Lorraine Hansberry (Looking for Lorraine), is a powerful writer. There were times her book made me want to cry both from the passion of her love and pain at some of the twisted values of our country, the needless hatred and violence we see daily. Perry is eloquent about these dangers but never forgets to celebrate her sons' love for live, unique qualities, and the lives they are creating.
Perry converys her hopes and dreams for the men they will become. Although worldly success is nice (and Perry, as well as her family, has an impressive C.V.--Harvard degrees, a professorship at Yale, a number of published books), she is most concerned with who they are as humans and what they value. For her, love of family, honoring others, human relationships are the heart of what it means to be successful in life.
In addition to her stories about her sons, her descriptions of them and their lives, Perry also provides a background to their lives. She believes that we neither come into the world alone nor do we live as isolated units. Family is important, place is important. Perry has deep roots to the south as well as to the midwest. She shares stories of her own life, obstacles she has faced, joys she has experienced. She celebrates the lives of her parents, grandparents and other ancestors and includes close friends, mentors, and even those we have admired and learned from as part of that important family. We do not go through this life alone, nor should we.
The author also tells her sons of where she feels she has not been the mother she would like to be and the ways in which they can thrive despite that. She appreciates the ways in which they are different from her as much as in the things they share. She admires their individual talents and ideas and ways of being in the world.
As a part of her gift to her sons, Perry shares much autobiographical information that I found fascinating. Her prose is beautiful and often inspiring. I found myself constantly underlining passages. She is an original and brilliant thinker who cares deeply about how to live in this world and how to share our thoughts, feelings, and experiences with each other. Like her, I deeply value and love books. Perry's love of reading reinforces her love of life and opens her always to new paths.
The book gives great pleasure because of the vibrancy of Perry's love for her sons, as well as her passion for life, for experience, for people, books, learning--everything it seems. Perry is full of energy and enthusiasm, which seem to support her as she makes a life within a difficult culture in difficult times.
This is a book I would like to reread. I felt my spirit uplifted by this letter. Perry is an inspiration not only to mothers but to all people who want to live a meaningful life. This book is a gift to us as well as her sons and a joy to read.
I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing.com. My thoughts and opinions are my own. I am grateful to the author and publisher as well as LibraryThing for the opportunity to read this.
Show More
are facing a world hostile to them as men of color and a call to them to retain their integrity, their creativity, and their joy of living and loving despite the dangers that surround them.Perry, who also wrote an outstanding biography of Lorraine Hansberry (Looking for Lorraine), is a powerful writer. There were times her book made me want to cry both from the passion of her love and pain at some of the twisted values of our country, the needless hatred and violence we see daily. Perry is eloquent about these dangers but never forgets to celebrate her sons' love for live, unique qualities, and the lives they are creating.
Perry converys her hopes and dreams for the men they will become. Although worldly success is nice (and Perry, as well as her family, has an impressive C.V.--Harvard degrees, a professorship at Yale, a number of published books), she is most concerned with who they are as humans and what they value. For her, love of family, honoring others, human relationships are the heart of what it means to be successful in life.
In addition to her stories about her sons, her descriptions of them and their lives, Perry also provides a background to their lives. She believes that we neither come into the world alone nor do we live as isolated units. Family is important, place is important. Perry has deep roots to the south as well as to the midwest. She shares stories of her own life, obstacles she has faced, joys she has experienced. She celebrates the lives of her parents, grandparents and other ancestors and includes close friends, mentors, and even those we have admired and learned from as part of that important family. We do not go through this life alone, nor should we.
The author also tells her sons of where she feels she has not been the mother she would like to be and the ways in which they can thrive despite that. She appreciates the ways in which they are different from her as much as in the things they share. She admires their individual talents and ideas and ways of being in the world.
As a part of her gift to her sons, Perry shares much autobiographical information that I found fascinating. Her prose is beautiful and often inspiring. I found myself constantly underlining passages. She is an original and brilliant thinker who cares deeply about how to live in this world and how to share our thoughts, feelings, and experiences with each other. Like her, I deeply value and love books. Perry's love of reading reinforces her love of life and opens her always to new paths.
The book gives great pleasure because of the vibrancy of Perry's love for her sons, as well as her passion for life, for experience, for people, books, learning--everything it seems. Perry is full of energy and enthusiasm, which seem to support her as she makes a life within a difficult culture in difficult times.
This is a book I would like to reread. I felt my spirit uplifted by this letter. Perry is an inspiration not only to mothers but to all people who want to live a meaningful life. This book is a gift to us as well as her sons and a joy to read.
I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing.com. My thoughts and opinions are my own. I am grateful to the author and publisher as well as LibraryThing for the opportunity to read this.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mclane
Imani Perry's book, "Breathe: A Letter to my Sons" should be read by every American who who would like, in some small way, to try to understand what it is like to be a black American in the 21st century, and to be the parent of a black boy or man today. Ms. Perry herself is an amazing woman: a
Show More
lawyer, author, college professor and mother who has a magical touch in the way she describes her life and that of her extended family going back several generations, and her two dearly loved sons who are on the cusp of manhood. In an age when it is dangerous to even be black in America, Ms. Perry describes with clarity the joys and sorrows, fears and challenges, accomplishments and losses of even a successful and gifted black family. This book should be read by everyone and anyone seeking to somewhat understand this topic. Highly recommended!! Show Less
LibraryThing member Seventyserpents
I adored this book. It's definitely one of the best I have read in quite a while. Honestly, I cannot believe that Imani Perry was concerned that her sons might grow to hate the book she wrote for them. This book is beautifully written and full of love. You don't have to agree with everything in the
I enjoyed the following excerpt (and I will explain why below): "The history of conquest is a scourge on the human condition. A lingering one. The fact of the body, the fact of who has the most weapons, the fact of which gender one finds attractive and which one to belong to, regardless of the details of the flesh, these are things I believe in making free and treating tenderly."
I have been around for a while and have paid close attention to the ways in which scholars broach the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity. I have seen how often they address the former while neglecting the latter, and I am a bit sick of being ignored. Although trans rights were not the focus of this particular book, seeing an intellectual activist not ignore my existence for once was a breath of fresh air. That is my honest, albeit slightly selfish, opinion of the book.
Everyone will find this book relatable to some degree, regardless of whether you are Black in the United States. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading it again.
Show More
book to see that.I enjoyed the following excerpt (and I will explain why below): "The history of conquest is a scourge on the human condition. A lingering one. The fact of the body, the fact of who has the most weapons, the fact of which gender one finds attractive and which one to belong to, regardless of the details of the flesh, these are things I believe in making free and treating tenderly."
I have been around for a while and have paid close attention to the ways in which scholars broach the topics of sexual orientation and gender identity. I have seen how often they address the former while neglecting the latter, and I am a bit sick of being ignored. Although trans rights were not the focus of this particular book, seeing an intellectual activist not ignore my existence for once was a breath of fresh air. That is my honest, albeit slightly selfish, opinion of the book.
Everyone will find this book relatable to some degree, regardless of whether you are Black in the United States. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading it again.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Chautauqua Prize (Shortlist — 2020)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Nonfiction — 2020)
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Nominee — Nonfiction — 2020)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Non-Fiction — 2019)