All Bodies All Selves

As we face increasing attacks on our bodily autonomy from our federal and state governments, these books provide essential resources and narratives that approach the topic with acuity and compassion. Award-winning author Zetta Elliott reflects the voices of Black women and girls for whom body policing has long been an issue in Say Her Name, a collection of poems that pays tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists championing the Black Lives Matter cause, revealing the beauty, danger, and magic found at the intersection of race and gender. In Seema Yasmin’s Unbecoming, a near-speculative novel that has predicted our anti-abortion world with terrifying accuracy, two Muslim teens in Texas create an illegal guide to abortion that includes how to secure safe medications and navigate underground networks of clinics that sprung up in response to unfair laws that prohibit the right to choose. Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by bestselling author Maia Kobabe and Public Health Assistant Professor Sarah Peitzmeier, offers a real-life a graphic novel guide to chest binding as gender-affirming care not only for trans and nonbinary folks but also for anyone interested in what it means to be on a journey of expressing one’s gender in ways that are joyful, healthy, and affirming. Screenwriter, poet, and educator Shia Shabazz Smith will moderate this panel, building from the crucial book Our Bodies, Ourselves, that advocates for bodily autonomy for all bodies, all selves.