Fat Crush: adrienne maree brown

Written by Bench Bookkeeping July 31, 2020
We're crushing HARD this month. You know the crush that makes your palms get sweaty when you just think their name?! It’s like that. adrienne maree brown. My palms are sweaty. AND (heart pounding)... she loves sci-fi. If you're not familiar with adrienne maree brown, buckle up because you're about to have your mind/heart/soul/spirit blown wide open.



adrienne maree brown is a word weaving author, doula, women's rights activist, black movement facilitator, and the highest order FM Fat Crush. Her newest book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, is a powerful discussion that answers the question: How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience?  Drawing on the black feminist tradition, she challenges us to rethink the ground rules of activism, locating the radical in the erotic reconnection to the body, to joy. I savor this book in ten page servings, it is so nutrient dense, and I’m a book glutton.



adrienne’s book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds is one of two books I buy for all my friends on the level (along with Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, in case you were wondering). People who reference Emergent Strategy always get my full attention. This is one of those books I think of as blueprints for how humans will interact with each other and their ecosystems in the post-apocalyptic paradise 500 years from now. (Since I’m also a sci-fi nerd) @emergentstrategy




And yup, she keeps going. Are you feeling me on the fecundity of this Fat Crush? It is epic.

adrienne is also the co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements. AHHHHmazing. For me, adrienne’s work lays down the territory where the convergence of my deepest aspirations as an activist and my profound devotion to the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre, get world changing MAGICAL. 



Much of adrienne’s work is inspired and shaped by the late SCI-Fi, fantasy author and oracle Octavia Butler. In commemoration, adrienne and Toshi Reagon have launched Octavia’s Parables, a podcast that takes a deep dive into the author’s two Parable novels, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. 
The beautiful convo and collaboration between adrienne and Toshi makes you fall deep for both of them as they insightfully navigate the connections between realities of ‘Parable’ and our times.



‘How to Survive the End of the World’, adrienne’s other podcast with her sister Autumn is a pathway of many revelations inspired by the hearts, ideas and work of their guests and guest hosts. I’ve been introduced to folks who are stretching my awareness on just how multifaceted and badass one human can be.  Check. It. Out.