A review by zoekatereads
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad

5.0

 I read this in a day - a phenomenal and deeply important memoir.

“Maybe community creates courage. What if courage creates community? Maybe empathy creates courage. How can you express empathy towards others if you can't empathize with your own self? Is the core of healing empathy and courage?”

I'm not a huge memoir reader, there's only been a few that have really interested me enough to pick them up. A lovely mutual on insta ( @the_midwest_library - PHENOMENAL recommendations) shared a review of this book and I knew I had to read it.

We've all heard of the 'me too.' movement, but how much do we know of the people, the work, the activism that came before that? This is such an important read and I would wholeheartedly recommend this if a) you have checked trigger warnings ahead of reading, and b) if you're in the right mindset.

Exploring Burke's experiences from growing up in the Bronx, to becoming the model student and activist, to one day being courageous enough to write "me too" on a piece of paper and spearheading a social movement was an emotional rollercoaster. Unbound goes beyond Burke's own experiences, but also to those of other young girls and women she encounters in life as well as the systemic issues that allow the cycles of abuse to continue unchecked.

Burke shares the lasting message of empowerment through empathy - something I think we can all learn from.