East Shore Reads: Breathe

Join an East Shore Reads discussion group​ of the UUA Common Read 2020-21: Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry (Beacon Press, 2019).

Why Read Breathe Together?

Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Perry’s book challenges society to recognize Black children as deserving of humanity. She shares her fear and frustration for her African American sons in an increasingly racist atmosphere in which white people at times seem irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love—finding beauty and possibility in life. She exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find grounding and inspiration in Black tradition. The New York Times calls Breathe “an elixir of history, ancestry and compassion, which, together, become instruction…a parent’s unflinching demand, born of inherited trauma and love, for her children’s right simply to be possible.”

Breathe offers a broad meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived as well as an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience. 

This moment in time calls for a historic national reckoning with what it means to live as a Black or Brown American. Since our country’s founding, systems of institutional racism have been operating to control, traumatize, and oppress people of color. As our President, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, has written, “It matters that we support the uprisings whose goal is the liberation of Black people and communities who for too long have been crushed by white supremacy, militarism, and capitalism. We must find the sources within ourselves to give us courage in this moment.” The selection of Breathe as the 2020-21 Common Read aims to nurture this necessary courage.