Berkeley Arts & Letters: Morgan Jerkins

MORGAN JERKINS presents This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
Wednesday, February 21, 2018, 7:30PM
at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley
TICKETS ON SALE NOW

​Jerkins’ highly-anticipated collection of linked essays interweaves her incisive commentary on pop culture, feminism, black history, misogyny, and racism with her own experiences to confront the very real challenges of being a black woman today — perfect for fans of Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist, Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me, and Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists.

Morgan Jerkins is only in her twenties, but she has already established herself as an insightful, brutally honest writer who isn’t afraid of tackling tough, controversial subjects. In This Will Be My Undoing, she takes on perhaps one of the most provocative contemporary topics: What does it mean to “be” — to live as, to exist as — a black woman today? This is a book about black women, but it’s necessary reading for all Americans.

Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. In This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins becomes both narrator and subject to expose the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large.

Whether she’s writing about Sailor Moon; Rachel Dolezal; the stigma of therapy; her complex relationship with her own physical body; the pain of dating when men say they don’t “see color”; being a black visitor in Russia; the specter of “the fast-tailed girl” and the paradox of black female sexuality; or disabled black women in the context of the “Black Girl Magic” movement, Jerkins is compelling and revelatory.

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“Morgan Jerkins is a star, a force, a blessing, a scholar and a critic, and now can add great American essayist to that list! I found myself sighing, nodding, gasping, laughing, and crying while reading this collection-but mostly cheering! We can all sleep well at night knowing this country will inherit heart, mind, and soul like this. It’s safe to say I’ve never read anyone this young-barely at quarter life!-who can understand herself, those around her, past and present, with such dignity and clarity and generosity. Intersectionality in America is dissected, investigated, celebrated and challenged all without being pedantic or preachy or pretentious. And Jerkins is the sort of benevolent intellectual you want to spend time with-who will never lie to you, but also will never let you lie to her. I’ve long known that feminism and arts and media owe so much to the excellent work of black women and This Will be My Undoing is yet another testament to that.” — Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons & Other Flammable Objects, The Last Illusion, and Sick
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Morgan Jerkins is a twenty-something-year-old living and writing in New York. She graduated from Princeton with an AB in comparative literature, specializing in nineteenth-century Russian and modern Japanese literature, and has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Jenkins is currently a contributing editor at Catapult and a Book of the Month judge. She has also written for Vogue, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, the Guardian, andthe New York Times, among many others.

Important signing details coming soon. Tickets on sale at this link.

RSVP at this link: not required, but, as always, greatly appreciated.