The Purpose of Power
  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9781784165918
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99
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The Purpose of Power

From the co-founder of Black Lives Matter

Formats & editions
EBook
22 Oct 2020
Paperback
5 Jan 2022
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In a powerful exploration of recent racial history, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter - and one of the BBC's Women of 2020 - examines the moment we're in, how we got here, and how together we can build movements to create a just and equal world. Now with a new Afterword.

Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag when Alicia Garza wrote what she calls 'a love letter to Black people' on Facebook. But hashtags don't build movements, she tells us. People do. Interwoven with Garza's experience of life as a Black woman, The Purpose of Power is the story of how she responded to the persistent message that Black lives are of less value than white lives by galvanizing people to create change. It's an insight into grass roots organizing to deliver basic needs - affordable housing, workplace protections, access to good education - to those locked out of the economy by racism. It is an attempt not only to make sense of where Black Lives Matter came from but also to understand the possibilities that Black Lives Matter and movements like it hold for our collective futures. Ultimately, it's an appeal to hearts and minds, demanding that we think about our privileges and prejudices and ask how we might contribute to the change we want to see in the world.
  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9781784165918
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $22.99
Categories:
Share…

Praise for The Purpose of Power

Alicia Garza's story is the definition of powerful. Part memoir, part roadmap, this book will light the way for anyone who wants to follow in her inspiring footsteps. Fed up of hashtag activism? This is the read you've been waiting for.

VIV GROSKOP, author of HOW TO OWN THE ROOM

Alicia Garza combines immense wisdom with political courage to inspire a new generation of activists, dreamers and leaders. Transforming the very meaning of solidarity, unity and leadership, The Purpose of Power offers a new model of organizing that makes room for those willing to learn. People like Alicia have been speaking up for decades. If we want to turn protest into substantive change, it's about time we finally listened

DAVID LAMMY, MP

Alicia Garza has articulated the aspiration of generations of Black people to be valued, protected, respected and free. This beautiful, important and timely memoir is insightful, compelling and necessary in this critical moment of reckoning with our history

BRYAN STEVENSON, author of New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

"Black lives matter" - Alicia Garza's love letter read around the world. The Purpose of Power is another love letter that should be read around the world.

IBRAM X. KENDI, bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

'The Purpose of Power is a must read... Anyone interested in turning the page of our contemptible past toward a brighter future should put this book on their reading list'

Congresswoman Barbara Lee

As co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Garza has been leading the fight against racism for years.

COSMOPOLITAN

In a year where a long overdue reckoning with racism is once again in the spotlight, Garza's call to action to create a sustainable movement bigger than hashtags and social media followings is urgent and critically necessary

TIME

Incisive, uplifting, and exactly what the world needs right now... A must-read book.

STYLIST

Read it for a fresh dose of inspiration for activism and justice.

GLAMOUR

Lessons from a 20-year career spent organizing for change.

INDEPENDENT, A Book of 2020

A rousing, rigorous book to enlighten and inspire.

CULTURE WHISPERER

In a year when a long overdue reckoning with racism is once again in the spotlight, Garza's call to action to create a sustainable movement bigger than hashtags and social media followings is urgent and critically necessary.

TIME
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