Explores the terror, sophistication, and beauty of approaching of age as a Black person in modern America and what this means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.

Psychologically raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children mainly because deserving of humanity. She admits dread and frustration on her behalf BLACK sons within a society that’s increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mom, feminist, article writer, and about Breathe: A Letter to My Sons intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love-finding beauty and probability in life-and she exhorts her children and their peers to get the courage to chart their own pathways and find regular footing and motivation in Black tradition.

Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as Adam Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She stocks vulnerabilities and insight from her own existence and from encounters in areas as assorted as the Western world Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New Britain prep schools.

With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on competition, gender, and this is of a life well lived and can be an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.