NEVER TELL A BLACK GIRL HOW TO BLACK GIRL

An essay collection reflects on Black womanhood as a verb rather than a noun.

Brown’s third book draws on her roots in spoken word to examine Black culture and personal memories, from pool parties and bikinis to the journey of finding a therapist. Throughout these moments and recollections of personal breakthroughs and triumphs, the collection circles around the central idea: “Black Girl” not as a singular identity but as a varied and layered experience. One particularly insightful passage stems from an early lesson on beauty and conformity, such as with the “straight hair evangelist” on the playground, and then using this moment to explore her relationship and connection with her hair. The strongest expression of this celebration of Black womanhood arrives in the titular essay, a poem and ode to Black women: “We practice yoga / We meditate / We call on Jesus / We pray to Allah / We wear hijab / Some of us prefer not to call on a god at all.” Brown’s prose is consistently conversational and yet balances between succinct humor (“In fifth grade I started to notice them: breasts. Not mine because I had a chest as flat as the notebooks I loved to write my poems in”) and vulnerability (“Sometimes my therapy experience has been a comedy of errors, but finding the right therapist where I could be myself and bring my full self to session was worth it. Therapy is for those people who have those problems, and therapy is for you and your problems too.”). The collection succeeds in creating a space for celebrating various experiences. Black women are not a monolith, and Brown writes from this space—to herself, to her Black therapist, and to the women before her for the wisdom, vulnerability, and advice offered.

A rich love letter to Black women and their multitudes.