The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

· Sold by One World
3.7
6 reviews
Ebook
352
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

An essential guide to building transformative movements to address the challenges of our time, from one of the country’s leading organizers and a co-creator of Black Lives Matter
 
“Excellent and provocative . . . a gateway [to] urgent debates.”—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Time Marie Claire Kirkus Reviews

In 2013, Alicia Garza wrote what she called “a love letter to Black people” on Facebook, in the aftermath of the acquittal of the man who murdered seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin. Garza wrote: 

Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.
 
With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do. 
 
Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve. 
 
This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.

Ratings and reviews

3.7
6 reviews
IG Music
February 7, 2021
Human life matters. Blm is an extremist group after 2020. They could pass for activists before then but after all the destruction and chaos that arised. Its obvious they are as radical as Nelson Mandela during apartheid. Truly its a shame too. Mlk is who you should aspire too if you truly want change. Otherwise youre just another anarchist taking advantage of peoples struggles. Did George Floyd want other people to be die in his name? Did he want hundred of cities across america to burn in it? His family said no multiple times and we can only assume he would felt horrified by some of the reactions to his death. To come together you need to unify. Currently youre position is to destroy and villify. And i pray, and hope your side will reconsider the direction its taken and find a more pragmatic way to solve the ever lasting problems of the world.
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Christopher Tucker
October 28, 2020
Phenomenal book. Must read for black America.
6 people found this review helpful
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Jairus Stewart
January 28, 2021
Great overstanding of why organizing is important for evolution.
2 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Alicia Garza is an organizer, political strategist, and cheeseburger enthusiast. She is the principal at the Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, director of strategy and partnerships at the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and host of the Lady Don’t Take No podcast.

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