Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak [Paperback]

A. Breeze Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1590561457 | ISBN-13: 978-1590561454

Sistah Vegan is a series of narratives, critical essays, poems, and reflections from a diverse community of North American black-identified vegans. Collectively, these activists are de-colonizing their bodies and minds via whole-foods veganism. By kicking junk-food habits, the more than thirty contributors all show the way toward longer, stronger, and healthier lives. Suffering from type-2 diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, and overweight need not be the way women of color are doomed to be victimized and live out their mature lives. There are healthy alternatives. Sistah Vegan is not about preaching veganism or vegan fundamentalism. Rather, the book is about how a group of black-identified female vegans perceive nutrition, food, ecological sustainability, health and healing, animal rights, parenting, social justice, spirituality, hair care, race, gender-identification, womanism, and liberation that all go against the (refined and bleached) grain of our dysfunctional society. Thought-provoking for the identification and dismantling of environmental racism, ecological devastation, and other social injustices, Sistah Vegan is an in-your-face handbook for our time. It calls upon all of us to make radical changes for the betterment of ourselves, our planet, and by extension everyone.

Editorial Reviews

Review

These powerful voices of women form a mélange of voices that shape the black female vegan experience, addressing social, political, economic, racial, class, and gender issues all against the backdrop of a vegan lifestyle. If you are what you eat, then these women are fibrous, upward reaching leafy greens, rooted firmly in the soil, growing against the grain. --Latham Thomas, founder, Tender Shoots Wellness

About the Author

A. BREEZE HARPER is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Davis, exploring race, postcolonial, and feminist theories and their use as tools within critical food geographies. She began the Sistah Vegan project as an online forum. Harper lives with her husband and son in California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Lantern Books (March 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590561457
• ISBN-13: 978-1590561454
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A. Breeze Harper is a PhD Candidate at University of California-Davis. She writes about intersections of critical food studies, critical race theory, and black feminisms. She did her B.A. at Dartmouth College and her Masters at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for Thought, March 12, 2010

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Sister Holistic (Atlanta , GA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak (Paperback)

I have been a vegetarian on and off for 15 years and two years ago, I became a vegan. Like a lot of black women, I became interested in vegetarianism for both health and spiritual reasons. I've read books by Queen Afua, Dr. Laila Afrika and others. As I changed my eating habits, I also became aware of the large amounts of chemicals and animal products in my personal care items and I have begun to weed them out and replace them with vegan ones. My goal is to live a life that honors our Great Mother Earth.

With all that said, I never considered the connection between human rights and animal rights until I read Sistah Vegan. The collection of essays are thought provoking and made me question my dedication to liberation for all. I am the person that recycles, doesn't litter and is looking to start an organic garden yet I had no problem going and buying a fly pair of leather shoes. I wouldn't own a pet because it reminded me of some form of slavery but I would wear another creature's hide to be fashionable. The hypocrisy stood out glaringly.

And that's what this book does: It makes you see other points of views in veganism: The sistah who became vegan for health, the one who wants to live in tune with the earth, those who follow Ma'at as their code of ethics and yes, the animal rights lover. It shows our commonalities and our differences. It is my hope that all vegans, vegetarians, political activists, earth lovers and spiritual people read this book so that these voices may be heard.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow~, April 20, 2010

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C. Maldonado "BookJunkie" (Alta Loma, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak (Paperback)

What an amazing book and read this book was for me. I waited anxiously for my copy to arrive and when it did it just made my day. I have really found a lot of information and support from this book. Reading about the experiences and thoughts of all these women is so crucial since African-American women are a rare face to be seen in the Vegan community. Hopefully, other women will feel inspired to read this book, and really take in its love and wisdom. You are not alone! Others share your concerns!

I also loved that in the end there was contact info for these women. I will definitely reach out to a few of them.

Blessings to A. Breeze Harper and her crucially needed book!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vegan Newbie, April 16, 2010

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Jennifer Rogers "inspirasoul" (new york) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak (Paperback)

I am a new vegan and was super excited to read Sistah Vegan. I love the fact that the anthology offers different perspectives on veganism and the tone is non-judgemental. It definitely provided me with food for thought because I had never pondered animal rights or being a vegan as a political statement. This will be a book that I will read again and again for support along my new dietary lifestyle!

Rev. Jennifer Rogers