Pleasure Activism

I did not make it all of the way through Pleasure Activism. This is a collection of writing in various forms, primarily selected blog posts, transcriptions of conversations, and essays. The strengths of this approach and the collection as a whole is that there are a lot of voices and perspectives included, and plenty of breadcrumbs leading to other books, writers and teachers.

The weakness of the collection is that many of the selections are loosely or not at all edited, which leads to a lot of banal repetition across selections, and no individual selection has the depth or length to really address the topic or idea it is included to cover. Ultimately I got frustrated and bored with the low yield of ideas verses the time I was investing to read.

adrienne maree brown is a Black woman and an activist. If your experience of the world hews closer to hers than mine does, I have no doubt that reading this book would be a totally different experience. Clearly this collection has struck a chord with many readers. My recommendation to all readers is to take a look at the table of contents and dive right into the topic that you have the most interest in. If you're vibing with the material, this book may be right for you. If not, be aware that that level of depth and care in the writing is fairly consistent across the collection.

the core concept of “pleasure activism” is one that feels profound to me, and necessary. there are some good tidbits in this book and some of the essays and interviews are quite good. however, it does suffer from the format; many of the chapters are reprints of blog posts or are quite short, leaving me wishing the ideas were explored more deeply. i was also hoping for more practical tips on how to connect with pleasure and connect with others doing a work of activism that is aligned with these values.