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Just Arrived

Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance

by Francesca Royster
$7.90
Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance
Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance

Queer motherhood entwined with Black identity resilience.

"Choosing Family" resonates with anyone who understands that family transcends traditional definitions. Royster's personal exploration into motherhood and identity, set against the rich cultural landscape of Chicago, offers a tender yet powerful narrative. Her memoir not only delves into the nuances of creating a multiracial, queer family but also celebrates the joy found in claiming one's own path to love and resistance. It's a read that promises depth, crafted with layers of cultural, social, and emotional insights.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.
Just Arrived

Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance

by Francesca Royster
$7.90
Condition guide

Book Condition Guide

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This book may contain very minor cosmetic defects, but it is in pristine condition. There should be no yellowing, no foxing, no water damage, and no annotations of any kind on the cover and the pages. For paperbacks, there should not be any crease marks on the spine. This book is good as new — lucky you!

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

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*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

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*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

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This is a well-read book, which means that the previous owner probably really enjoyed it! The cover and pages may include moderate foxing and annotations, but the text is not obscured and still readable. Moderate cosmetic defects and minor water damage may be present on the edges of the book. For paperbacks, there may be multiple crease marks on the spine.

*Books may be missing bundle media (e.g. CD, e-book code), if included.

 

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ISBN: 9781419756177
Authors: Francesca Royster
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Date of Publication: 2023-02-07
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Sociology, Biographies & Memoirs
Related Topics: Feminism, Race, Social Justice, Social Issues, Memoir, Gender, Biography, Biography Memoir
Goodreads rating: 4.02
(rated by 233 readers)

Description

Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance is a brilliant literary memo ir of chosen family and chosen heritage, told against the backdrop of Chicago’s North and South Sides. As a multiracial household on Chicago’s North Side, in the Rogers Park neighborhood, race is at the core of Francesca T. Royster’s and her family’s world, influencing everyday acts of parenting and the conception of what family truly means. Like Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, this lyrical and affecting memoir focuses on a unit of three: the author; her wife, Annie, who’s white; and Cecilia, the Black daughter they adopt as a couple in their 40s and 50s. Choosing Family chronicles this journey to motherhood while examining the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a Black, queer, and feminist perspective. Royster also explores her memories of the matriarchs of her childhood and the homes these women created in Chicago’s South Side—itself a dynamic character in the memoir—where “family” was fluid, inclusive, and not necessarily defined by marriage or other socially recognized contracts. Drawing on the work of queer thinkers including José Esteban Muñoz and Audre Lorde, Royster interweaves her experiences and memories with queer and gender theory to argue that many Black families—certainly her own—have historically had a “queer” attitude toward family: configurations that sit outside the white normative experience and are richer for their flexibility and generosity of spirit. A powerful, genre-bending memoir of family, identity, and acceptance, Choosing Family ultimately is about joy—about claiming the joy that society did not intend to assign to you, or to those like you.
 

Queer motherhood entwined with Black identity resilience.

"Choosing Family" resonates with anyone who understands that family transcends traditional definitions. Royster's personal exploration into motherhood and identity, set against the rich cultural landscape of Chicago, offers a tender yet powerful narrative. Her memoir not only delves into the nuances of creating a multiracial, queer family but also celebrates the joy found in claiming one's own path to love and resistance. It's a read that promises depth, crafted with layers of cultural, social, and emotional insights.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.