audaciaray's review
5.0
This book really pushed me to fully grapple with the idea that being present in movement work is doing grief work. For much of my activist life I’ve pushed down and away my feelings of grief, sadness, and anger or channeled them into overwork - via writing, vigils, protests, campaign planning. I believed that feelings are weakness and not helpful or productive. But in the last few years I’ve been thinking about the utility of feelings (ugh even putting it that way is wrong) in a different way, and this book really spoke to that. We must be able to bring our full, messy, grieving selves into movement and not treat the work like a space to be professionalized and sanitized of emotion.
krys_kilz's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This was a truly stunning essay collection. I felt so held and seen by many of these pieces. A much needed balm for these grief heavy times we live in.
My favorite essays in the collection were: Feeling Is Not Weakness: On Mourning and Movement by Benji Hart, Fragments Towards a Whole by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo, Rages of Fukushima and Grief in a No-Future Present with Mari Matsumoto and Sabu Kohso, Cracks in My Universe by A.J. Withers, The Gentrification of AIDS by Sarah Schulman, "They Could Be My Grandchildren" by Andalusia Knoll Soloff and Ghost Stories: Rock, Paper, Ashes by Cindy Milstein.
This is definitely a book I will return to again and again.
My favorite essays in the collection were: Feeling Is Not Weakness: On Mourning and Movement by Benji Hart, Fragments Towards a Whole by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo, Rages of Fukushima and Grief in a No-Future Present with Mari Matsumoto and Sabu Kohso, Cracks in My Universe by A.J. Withers, The Gentrification of AIDS by Sarah Schulman, "They Could Be My Grandchildren" by Andalusia Knoll Soloff and Ghost Stories: Rock, Paper, Ashes by Cindy Milstein.
This is definitely a book I will return to again and again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Grief, Violence, Death, and Police brutality
Moderate: Sexual assault, Ableism, and Child abuse
rowanlist's review
5.0
One of the most impactful books I've ever read. I have a feeling I'll keep coming back to it again and again.
indielittttt's review
5.0
Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief edited by Cindy Milstein
This book made me feel so many things. It was so good, I loved every submission. They gave me time and space to grieve for things both big and small. They showed me that grief can be revolutionary. I think that you all should read this collection, especially now. There’s so much to grieve for in the world and this can provide an effective way to feel that anger and sadness in community with others.
5/5⭐️
This book made me feel so many things. It was so good, I loved every submission. They gave me time and space to grieve for things both big and small. They showed me that grief can be revolutionary. I think that you all should read this collection, especially now. There’s so much to grieve for in the world and this can provide an effective way to feel that anger and sadness in community with others.
5/5⭐️
bookedinsideout's review
4.0
A little different from what I was expecting (they didn't talk about grief as much as the circumstances that led to it), but I learned a lot about marginalized communities and how coming together provides an outlet for anger, sadness, and grief.
_micah_'s review
4.0
When Cindy saw that hospice workers and death doulas were able to hold space in a way that anarchists weren't, she went and made an entire book on how leftists can do better.
After meeting with Cindy at this year's Anarchist book fair in Victoria I may have started a book group at the Spartacus Collective just to make myself read this. It's a collection of pieces, so it's hit or miss in terms of craft, but I did learn more about global movements as a whole. Plus, the pieces that stuck out (Cindy's, Awry's, Sandusky's) are still kicking around in my head today, especially as I find myself dealing with the deaths of more people in my life as the opiate crisis/the passage of time takes its toll on my communities.
I'd highly recommend this for anyone trying to make meaning or movement out of severe grief.
After meeting with Cindy at this year's Anarchist book fair in Victoria I may have started a book group at the Spartacus Collective just to make myself read this. It's a collection of pieces, so it's hit or miss in terms of craft, but I did learn more about global movements as a whole. Plus, the pieces that stuck out (Cindy's, Awry's, Sandusky's) are still kicking around in my head today, especially as I find myself dealing with the deaths of more people in my life as the opiate crisis/the passage of time takes its toll on my communities.
I'd highly recommend this for anyone trying to make meaning or movement out of severe grief.