Literati Presents: Austin Channing Brown in conversation w/Ashley C. Ford

Literati is thrilled to welcome bestselling author Austin Channing Brown, to celebrate her new book, Full of Myself: Black Womanhood and the Journey to Self-Possession. She'll be joined in conversation by Ashley C. Ford.

About The Book: In a time of rising authoritarianism and attacks on personal freedoms, the New York Times bestselling author of I'm Still Here chronicles her efforts to live as her full self in a society that wants women--and Black women in particular--to do anything but that.

As an antiracism educator and writer leading through America's cycles of racial unrest, Austin Channing Brown reached a crossroads. "I love my work," she writes, "and I am tired. We are tired. Tired of protesting. Tired of 'saving democracy.' Tired of educating and explaining." She began to ask, "What do I deserve, not just as a citizen but as a human?"

Full of Myself answers that question. Weaving personal narrative with perceptive social commentary, Brown offers a look at the mechanisms that limit who Black women are allowed to be--at work, at home, in community--and the defining moments when she decided that self-possession is the justice work she had been made to undervalue. From skinny-dipping in the ocean to becoming a mom, she delves into the drama of life and invites readers to begin defining themselves not as empty vessels to improve the world, but as a people born free in spirit, in hope, in joy.

For Black women seeking to understand the true roots of their burnout, or for anyone wondering what it means to live joyfully in a hostile world, Full of Myself is a breath of fresh air and an invitation to full humanity.

Austin Channing Brown is an author and speaker providing inspired leadership on racial justice in America. She is the New York Times bestselling author of I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, a Reese's Book Club pick. Her work has been featured by outlets such as On Being, Chicago Tribune, and WNYC.

Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK.

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