Bay Area voices featured in "Talking Back," a dynamic new anthology by activists of color

Bay Area Book Launch for a new anthology, "Talking Back: Voices of Color" (Red Letter Press, 2015), is May 3 at Marcus Books, Oakland. Nellie Wong, a widely published Bay Area poet and social justice activist, is the book's editor and author of the introduction, a striking meditation on the importance of "talking back" in asserting identity and power on an individual and collective level.

Talking Back: Voices of Color (Red Letter Press, 2015), presents an unusually diverse group of writers speaking out on issues affecting communities of color. Contributors share tales of survival, explore little-known history, and offer insightful cultural reviews. Nellie Wong, a widely published Bay Area poet and social justice activist, is the book's editor and author of the introduction, a striking meditation on the importance of "talking back" in asserting identity and power on an individual and collective level.

Like Wong, the book's contributors are involved in community organizing. Based in a number of locations, their identities include Asian/Pacific American, Black, indigenous North American and Aboriginal Australian, Latino, Palestinian, immigrant, feminist, youth, elder, LGBTQ, students, unionists, former prisoners, and more. Make no mistake about it, many of the writers are out-front radicals. Their aim is to communicate and mobilize. Speaking from and to the grassroots, their offerings are readable, persuasive, free from academic jargon, and rich with personal experience.

Bay Area readers will find many notable local activists in addition to the well-known Nellie Wong. Pioneering Asian American lesbian feminist teacher Merle Woo writes about her series of landmark discrimination suits against UC-Berkeley. Duciana Thomas, an African American feminist from the Bayview-Hunters Point community, writes on her participation in the ongoing battle to save City College of San Francisco from closure. Norma Gallegos, a queer Chicana and San Francisco native, pays tribute to a pioneer of socialist feminist ideas. Gay radical Moisés Moises, a participant in the Berkeley Occupy and anti-apartheid movements, draws an anti-war message from his family's experiences in the U.S. military. Nancy Reiko Kato reviews the little-known history of Asian Pacific American radicals told in Legacy to Liberation.

Arab American artist and writer Happy Hyder, says the book's "fearless and varied voices" reveal "the true meaning of political action." African American scholar, unionist, and former civil rights organizer James Wright calls the book "a treasure" by a "rainbow of radical authors." Sociologist Dr. Jesse Díaz, Jr. says the book will lead to increased understanding of the activist of color's "toils for equality and justice." Alice Goff, a Black immigrant labor leader and community activist, predicts that even readers who don't share the opinions of the authors may "come away with a different perspective and possibly be moved to question the status quo." Karin Aguilar-San Juan, an associate professor and Filipina American lesbian, describes the writings as resonant with "pain and rage… light and power and hope."

Bay Area book launch for Talking Back: Voices of Color will be held May 3, 2:00pm at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland (at 39th St., two blocks from MacArthur BART). Authors Nellie Wong, Norma Gallegos, Nancy Reiko Kato, Moises Montoya, Duciana Thomas and Merle Woo will be present to discuss and read from their contributions.

For more information, to obtain a review copy or arrange an interview or reading, contact Red Letter Press, 747 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94131, 415-864-1278, baFSP [at] earthlink.net, radicalwomen.org. Press kit with photos and more at http://www.RedLetterPress.org/presskit.html.
# # #
Talking Back: Voices of Color
Edited and with an introduction by Nellie Wong
$15.00, 240 pages, paperback, 5.5" x 8.5", index
Red Letter Press, 2015
Print version: ISBN 978-0-932323-32-3
Ebook: ISBN 978-0-932323-33-0
Online press kit: