Forbes | November 2, 2020

Following the death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, in 2013, Patrisse Cullors was motivated to take action. She, alongside Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, created #BlackLivesMatter to expose ongoing anti-Black racism. “I hope it gets bigger than we can ever imagine,” she thought at the time.

It has. Black Lives Matter has evolved into a movement, one that’s still growing. In May and June, the hashtag was tweeted an average of 3.7 million times a day. On May 28, #BlackLivesMatter was used on Twitter nearly 8.8 million times—the most times it had been tweeted in a single day since the Pew Research Center started tracking it in 2013. 

“The virality is happening through millions of regular normal people who use the hashtag because they see the necessity to call out racism, to call out white supremacy, to call out anti-Black racism,” says Cullors. “I wasn’t a celebrity, we weren’t really known outside of our own cities and states seven years ago. That is the power of grassroots organizing—to be able to get folks to recognize how important it is to see themselves in each other.”

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Booklist | November 1, 2020

It opens with the mellifluous Dion Graham and ends with an always-appreciated who-read-whom at recording’s end. In between, the horror is unrelenting, yet the three narrators persist with tenacious dignity and grace. Graham enthralls as the titular “my mother’s house”—Kay Manman Mwen in Kreyòl—the Queens, New York home of Lucien and Marie-Ange, a once “compassionate and savvy young couple,” who initially provided a haven for fellow Haitian immigrants. Their needs, his help, feeds Lucien’s power as he transforms La Kay into a house of hidden torture chambers. The house, calling itself La Kay, appoints itself witness and judge, plotting vengeance when it can bear Lucien’s depravity no more. The provocative casting of a female narrator—the impressive Karen Chilton—for Lucien’s sections becomes a rebellious, reclamatory act of giving voice to the countless women manipulated, hunted, tormented, and enslaved in the too-many decades Lucien has thrived. Janina Edwards achingly haunts as Sol, the sole prisoner allowed narrative agency, whose survival—and that of her basement-born son—is anything but guaranteed. Debut novelist Momplaisir’s already unnerving nightmare on-the-page morphs into aural terror, most definitely not for the casual listener. Content warnings, yes: a chilling lesson in inhumanity—private and public both.

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AP News | October 31, 2020

Black Lives Matter has been a lot of things in its brief, fiery life.

It has been a slogan, a rallying point. A movement that led protests coast to coast, calling for America to get serious about preventing Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement. A heaven-sent resource for people like Helen Jones, desperate for justice after her son died in a Los Angeles County jail.

“Black Lives Matter saved us, because we had nobody,” said Jones.

Now, BLM’s influence faces a test, as voters in Tuesday’s election consider candidates who endorsed or denounced the BLM movement amid a national reckoning on race.

“We’re a very young organization with a whole lot of visibility in a really short amount of time,” Patrisse Cullors, one of three BLM co-founders, told The Associated Press. It would be “false,” she said, “for anyone to put it on us solely around what happens in this election cycle.”

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Variety | October 27, 2020

“#MeToo. #TimesUp. Now #NotDone?

A new documentary from first-time director Sara Wolitzky, titled “Not Done: Women Remaking America,” looks back on the last few years of advancements in the women’s movement. Premiering on Oct. 27 on PBS, just days ahead of the 2020 presidential election, the project feels both perfectly timed and also like it may just be the start of another wave of the movement.

‘We’re living through another of these major chapters of feminist organizing and people being back in the streets and huge shifts in public consciousness,’ Wolitzky tells Variety. ‘It felt like a good moment, but in some ways we can only scratch the surface. There’s always a lot more, both in terms of what happens next but also even in terms of looking more closely at the stuff that’s just happened. There are definitely pieces [within “Not Done”] that we could have done a whole film on.’

‘Not Done’ is the first film release from Verizon’s Future Fund, a multi-million dollar company commitment to supporting new and emerging female talent in entertainment and tech. It explores the outcry of feminism over the last four years, from the 2016 election through the women’s marches that in many places turns into marches for equality and inclusion among multiple disenfranchised and underrepresented groups, to Alyssa Milano making Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement go viral, the importance of Black Lives Matter being started by mothers and the start of Time’s Up. It features original interviews with everyone from African American Policy Forum co-founder and author Kimberlé Crenshaw, Black Lives Matter co-founders Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, producers including Shonda Rhimes and Joey Soloway, activist and journalist Gloria Steinem and Time’s Up co-founder and CEO Tina Tchen.”

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School Library Journal | October 26, 2020

The 2020 SLJ Summit finished with a personal and thought-provoking conversation between Black Lives Matter (BLM) cofounder Patrisse Cullors and Tennessee school librarian Erika Long. The two discussed Cullors’ reason for writing her memoir, the impact of a lifetime of racism, how young people are pushing the country to be better, and the role of educators now and going forward. It starts with "courageous conversations."

Cullors’s 2016 memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist, was recently adapted for middle grade and YA readers. The SLJ review called the title “an essential purchase for all high school libraries. Students will learn about BLM's beginnings and empathize with the pilgrimage of one individual discovering her true self.”

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ComicBook.com | October 26, 2020

Faith Erin Hicks is no stranger to middle grade graphic novels, and her next work, Ride On, leans into that with a passion. The new graphic novel from First Second Books, which ComicBook.com is exclusively announcing here, is loosely based on Hicks' experience riding horses in her younger years. But Ride On, written and drawn by Hicks, is not just about horses; it's also about loving something so much and then loving something else.

"Ride On is about young riders and horses and also Star Trek. So, I was a horse crazy girl in my younger years. I loved horses. I rode constantly. I would go and hang out at the barn with other young women who rode, and one boy, there was one boy who rode at the stables that I rode at when I was a young teen," Hicks says of the new graphic novel. "And Ride On, it's not a memoir. There is nothing in this book that is completely true to events that happened to me, but I would consider it emotionally true. So, it is based on, a little bit based on my experiences being this young, horse crazy girl, and also based on my experience of having this one thing in my life that I loved."

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Publishers Weekly | October 23, 2020

Meals, Music, and Muses by Alexander Smalls was named as one of the best lifestyle books of 2020 by Publishers Weekly!

“This eclectic cookbook provides classic Southern recipes with extra flair thanks to Smalls’s affinity for music. An internationally recognized opera singer, he elevates the work by naming each chapter after a type of music and diving into the details of his South Carolina childhood and how it influenced his cooking style.”

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Good Morning America | October 20, 2021

“Author Sili Recio discusses her Dominican upbringing and how it inspired her new children’s book If Dominican Were a Color.”

Follow the link above to watch the full interview on Good Morning America!

Interview Magazine | October 19, 2020

“In 2013, shortly after George Zimmerman was acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin, Patrisse Cullors left a comment on her friend Alicia Garza’s Facebook page: ‘declaration: black bodies will no longer be sacrificed for the rest of the world’s enlightenment. i am done. i am so done. trayvon, you are loved infinitely #blacklivesmatter.’ Soon after, Cullors, along with Garza and Opal Tometi, co-founded Black Lives Matter, a network that put a name to all the organizing and advocacy she had done throughout her life. After George Floyd’s murder last May, Black Lives Matter grew from a national organization into a global rallying cry. The hashtag Cullors created seven years ago can now be found painted in the windows of local businesses, on NBA basketball courts, and on a street leading directly to the White House. As Black Lives Matter has evolved into the central nervous system in the fight against police brutality and racial injustice, Cullors has become one of the most visible and respected activists of her generation, equally effective when speaking at protests in her hometown of Los Angeles as she is on Good Morning America. Cullors is one of the leaders in the campaign to defund police departments, and, in the run-up to this year’s presidential election, a fierce advocate for voting rights. Here, she offers us an important lesson in resistance: rest.”

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She Reads | October 19, 2020

“This year was such a great year for thrillers, it’s hard to think next year can top it. Thankfully, suspense, thrillers, page-turners, and whodunits await us in the year to come. Here we rounded up some of the most anticipated thrillers of 2021.”

The Hunting Wives by May Cobb was included in this fabulous round-up! Follow the link above to read more.

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Providence Journal | October 15, 2020

“Journalistic power couple Jack Logan and Taylor Parks make a triumphant return to the page in L.C. Shaw’s riveting and relentless ‘The Silent Conspiracy’ (Harper, 324 pages, $16.95), and they’ve really got their work cut out for them this time.

Indeed, after tackling a potential brainwashing conspiracy in ‘The Network,’ they’re facing a rash of murder-suicides that seemed to suggest someone is turning ordinary people into homicidal maniacs. Before you can say ‘Stephen King,’ Jack and Taylor have come to realize that this latest conspiracy bears a direct connection to a major case involving a nefarious insurance company that Taylor, an attorney, is bringing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

‘The Silent Conspiracy’ is just credible enough to be dizzying in its message and prescience. It’s a truly scary tale, the implications of which are even more dire because it’s grounded in reality.”

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Kirkus | October 15, 2020

“With the release of When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition): A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power To Change the World by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele, adapted by Benee Knauer (Wednesday Books, Sept. 29), teens can get to know one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, someone who is among the most influential figures shaping public discourse today. This edition of Khan-Cullors’ adult memoir packs the same emotional punch and is enhanced with questions at the end of each chapter that serve as a scaffold and inspiration for further discussion and action, making it ideal for classroom use. An intimate, self-reflective account of childhood, family, and community, the book will resonate with many while providing critical context and understanding for others. Khan-Cullors spoke to me from Los Angeles; the conversation has been edited for length and clarity.”

Follow the link above to read the full interview.

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Elle | October 15, 2020

“Each chapter in Patrisse Khan-Cullors' best-selling memoir When They Call You a Terrorist starts with a quote. There are words from Toni Morrison, poems by Audre Lorde, and writings from Octavia Butler. But when Khan-Cullors recently adapted the book for young adults, she added new elements. Throughout the pages, there are extra notes typed in a separate font that almost look like handwriting.

‘This is f—ed up.’

‘I don't want to live by these isms...’

‘Who am I?’

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World, co-written with asha bandele, was published in 2018 and details how Khan-Cullors became the artist and organizer we now know as the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement. In this new version of the memoir, released on September 22, there are personal family photos and chapter-specific reader questions. And those small notes? Lines pulled directly from journals Khan-Cullors kept from ages 16 to 26.

‘I wanted young people to understand that I was also a young activist,’ she tells ELLE.com. In a year when teenagers have continued to lead the very movement she helped start, the book feels like a gift and a guidepost for generations to come.

Below, Khan-Cullors discusses what it would've meant to her to have this story growing up—and how she's having the same conversations today that she had as a teen.”

Follow the link above to read the full interview.

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Deadline | October 15, 2020

“Black Lives Matter co-founder and Executive Director Patrisse Cullors continues to make moves and will bring her artistic impact to television. Warner Bros. Television Group has signed an exclusive, multi-year overall deal with celebrated, trailblazing author and political strategist.  This marks Cullors’ first pact with Warner Bros. and her first studio overall agreement.

Under terms of the wide-ranging content partnership, Cullors will develop and produce original programming for all platforms including streaming services, cable, and the five broadcast networks. This includes but is not limited to live-action scripted drama and comedy series; longform/event series; unscripted docuseries; animated programming for co-viewing among kids, young adults and families; and original digital content.”

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Teen Vogue | October 8, 2020

“Patrisse Khan-Cullors knows what it’s like to be called names. In her book When They Call You a Terrorist, the Black Lives Matter co-founder and executive director recounts how that word was weaponized against her and her fellow organizers. For fighting for Black lives, for speaking up about injustice, Cullors and the BLM movement were labeled ‘terrorists’ by law enforcement officials, politicians and political commentators.

But Cullors isn’t one to step back in the face of adversity. The new young adult edition of When They Call You a Terrorist is a hybrid manifesto for youth organizing and an intimate memoir of Cullors’ coming of age in southern California in the 1980s and 1990s. It tracks how her family’s history with the criminal justice system, addiction and mental health intersected with the rise of tough-on-crime policing policies and widening income inequality. Written in the present tense, the book takes the reader along with Cullors on her journey into adulthood and a changing America.

Here are five major takeaways for how young people can get involved in their communities and find purpose by helping others.”

Follow the link above to read the major takeaways from this young adult book.

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Variety | October 7, 2020

“YouTube announced a global slate of new and returning projects dedicated to amplifying Black voices and highlighting racial justice issues, including five new projects from its recently announced $100 million fund for Black creators.

The lineup includes documentary series ‘Resist’ from executive producer Patrisse Cullors (pictured above), cofounder of Black Lives Matter; an HBCU homecoming livestream special; and a special looking at health issues in the Black community from Charles D. King and Macro Television Studios.”

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Los Angeles Times | October 7, 2020

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele appears at #10 on the paperback nonfiction bestseller list form the Los Angeles Times! Follow the link above to read the full list.

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Parade | October 2, 2020

“We’ve heard it a million times: Don’t judge a book by its cover. But cover design is the literal window into the words and themes you’ll eventually find on those pages. And a compelling book cover entices people who may not normally pick it up to do so. Colorful, vibrant, mysterious. Memoir, fiction, poetry, essays. Go ahead, judge these stunning fall book covers.”

For the Best by Vanessa Lillie was included in this round-up from Parade! Follow the link above to see the full list.

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