Tamara Winfrey Harris is sick and tired of how Black women are portrayed in the media. It’s like there’s a handful of caricatures to choose from, and they all have to fit some version of those stereotypes. Back in 2015 she decided she’d had enough and set out to dispel those myths of Black womanhood. Her first book, The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America became essential reading for any sistas out there who feel the same way: misrepresented. Now her critically acclaimed work is being released in an expanded and updated second edition featuring new material and exclusive interviews. Joining her talk is fellow author and poet Khalisa Rae—who you may know as the author of Ghost In A Black Girl’s Throatfrom our Front Row a few months back.  It’s all happening right here with MahoganyBooks Co-owner Ramunda Young on November 16th at 7pm.

About the Book: A slew of harmful stereotypes continues to follow Black women. The second edition of this bestseller debunks vicious misconceptions rooted in long-standing racism and shows that Black women are still alright.

When African women arrived on American shores, the three-headed hydra—servile Mammy, angry Sapphire, and lascivious Jezebel—followed close behind. These stereotypes persist to this day through newspaper headlines, Sunday sermons, social media memes, cable punditry, government policies, big screen portrayals, and hit song lyrics. Author Tamara Winfrey Harris reveals that while emancipation may have happened more than 150 years ago, America still won’t let a sister be free from this coven of caricatures.

The latest edition of this bestseller features new interviews with diverse Black women about marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality, beauty, and more. Alongside these authentic experiences and fresh voices, Winfrey Harris explores the evolution of stereotypes of Black women, with new real-life examples, such as the rise of blackfishing and digital blackface (which help white women rise to fame) and the media’s continued fascination with Black women’s sexuality (as with Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion).

The second edition also includes a new chapter on Black women and power that explores how persistent stereotypes challenge Black women’s recent leadership and achievements in activism, community organizing, and politics. The chapter includes interviews with activists and civic leaders and interrogates media coverage and perceptions of Stacey Abrams, Vice President Kamala Harris, and others.

Winfrey Harris exposes anti–Black woman propaganda and shows how real Black women are pushing back against racist, distorted cartoon versions of themselves. She counters warped prejudices with the straight-up truth about being a Black woman in America.

About Tamara: Tamara Winfrey-Harris is a writer who specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics and pop culture intersect with race and gender. She says, “I want to be a storyteller of the Black female experience and a truth-teller to all those folks who got us twisted—tangled up in racist and sexist lies. I want my writing to advocate for my sisters. We are better than alright. We are amazing.”

Well-versed on a range of topics, including Beyoncé’s feminism; Rachel Dolezal’s white privilege; and the Black church and female sexuality, Tamara has been published in media outlets, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. And she has been called to share her analysis on media outlets, including NPR’s “Weekend Edition” and Janet Mock’s “So Popular” on MSNBC.com, and on university campuses nationwide.

Tamara’s first book, The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America was published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in 2015 and called “a myth-busting portrait of Black women in America” by The Washington Post. The book won the Phyllis Wheatley Award, IndieFab Award, Independent Publishers Living Now Award and the IPPY Award. Her sophomore effort Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power is forthcoming in March 2021 from Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Her essays also appear in The Lemonade Reader: Beyonce, Black Feminism and Spirituality (Routledge, 2019); The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery (Wayne State University Press, 2018) and The Arlington Reader: Fourth Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013).

Tamara is a native of Gary, IN, and a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc. She graduated with a BA degree from the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University.

About Khalisa: Khalisa Rae is a poet, journalist, and educator in Durham, North Carolina, that speaks with fierce rebellion. She is the graduate of the Queens University MFA program, where she studied under renown authors, Claudia Rankine and Ada Limon. In 2012, her poetry chapbook, Real Girls Have Real Problems was published by Jacar Press. Her love for poetry and performance has led her to be an active member of the National Poetry Slam(NPS) community since 2010, and the host of various poetry open mics.

Khalisa went on to start the women and femme poetry organization, Poet.she Performing Arts in Greensboro, NC after graduating from N.C. A&T University in 2011. Upon relocating to Wilmington, NC, she started the Athenian Press- a BIPOC bookstore and resource center for women, femme, non-binary, and trans writers and artists.  There she taught as an English professor and held the role of Community Outreach Director at the YWCA, among other advocacy titles with various nonprofits. Her work has been published widely and speaks to womanhood, anti-racism, identity, and generational trauma. Her essays are featured in Autostraddle, Catapult, LitHub, as well as articles in B*tch Media, NBC-BLK, and others. Her poetry appears in Frontier Poetry, Florida Review, Rust & Moth, PANK, Hellebore, Sundog Lit, HOBART, Flypaper Lit, and countless other places. She was a finalist in the Furious Flower Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize and a winner of the Fem Lit Magazine Contest, White Stag Publishing Contest, and the Bright Wings Poetry Contest. Currently, serves as the founder of Think in Ink: A BIPOC Collective and the Women of Color Speak Reading series. She is also the Assistant Editor at Glass Poetry and a workshop facilitator at Catapult.

About MahoganyBooks:  Derrick and Ramunda Young are owners/founders of the award-winning MahoganyBooks in Washington, DC where they focus on books for, by and about people of the African Diaspora. The couple have been featured in Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine, Essence, Washington Post, Steve Harvey TV and Wall Street Journal among others.  Learn more at mahoganybooks.com.

Tamara Winfrey Harris & Khalisa Rae Discuss The Sisters Are Alright