swilliamsj 's review for:

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall

5.0

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I have had this book on my TBR list since it came out and I’m so glad I got around to it now more than ever While I could definitely read this in the form of a nonfiction, essay or research paper, there’s something about the graphic novel format that pulls me into this world.

Hall’s work is a game changer if not for the veneration of our ancestors who fought and resisted in various ways. As a Black woman graduate student myself, I know too well how navigating spaces — living in the wake (word to Christina Sharpe) acts as its own battleground. Without risk of shoving my degree (African-American Studies) down folks’ necks, I’m just gonna say that the wake is a tumultuous space where we must reckon with our position as Black people in the Americas.

How better to honor those who came before by passing on their stories. To give names to numbers on a document or unrecorded people. Despite its bastardized usage in certain (right) spaces, “woke” is a call to action, to be reminded of who we are and why we are here.

I hope others who read this book will fight for our future, just like those in the past.