Breathe: A Letter to My Sons

“The time for unearthing is always now.” BREATHE by Imani Perry is beautiful and powerful, and it's the best memoir I've read all year. I read this book slowly, to soak it in instead of rushing to “create content.” This letter to her sons is also a meditation that reckons with what it means to be Black in America. It's cerebral and emotional in all the best ways literature can be.

I had a lengthy review written but decided to scrap it. This book does not need my performance. Just read the damn book and revel in Perry's writing. Sometimes being an ally can be: share Black creators, let them speak their truth, accept that truth.

“But I do not believe the acts of oppressors are my people's shame. For me, that my people became, created, and imagined from a position of unfreedom is a source of deep pride, not shame. I hope you learn that too. What better evidence of human beauty and resilience could there be?”

A beautiful, striking, loving, brutal letter from a Black mother to her Black sons on growing up and living in America.