What should readers and audiences expect from the book?
They should expect to understand the early and present Black Lives Matter movement and what it took to get groups like We the Protesters or Millennial Activists United off the ground. They’ll also experience a lot of what it was like as the journalist-activists filmed police brutality up-close.
How important is it for Black people to have their stories told?
We need to tell our own stories, and that is why I admire these smartphone witnesses that often provide the counter-narrative to the “official” police account.
What was the hardest part of writing Bearing Witness While Black?
I had a difficult time ending the book since police-related murders were frequent. It was too painful to watch the videos of Black people — who looked like family members — being killed by the police, and I would often cry as I wrote, being a mother to Black children.
What inspires you to write?
I want to study and document all the resilient and brilliant ways we show up in a world that despised Black people. We have experienced substantial trouble involving slavery, lynching, redlining, medical apartheid, mass incarceration, and police brutality.
